Fortis
by Oblitus-Umbrae
Summary: This is the story of a young man who had a foolish and innocent dream. The story of the difficult path that laid ahead. The story of his struggles, his victories, his losses. The story of those who stood by his side, and those who opposed him, but most importantly this is the story of the young man who simply wished to be the strongest. Multi-xover. Non-devil Naruto. No bashing.
1. Prologue

**Fortis**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto, nor do I own High School D x D. I think it's obvious by now.

**AN: **Hey there guys this is O-U back from the dead, and by dead I mean two jobs, a broken computer, and summer courses that otherwise killed my time for typing out anything decent barring a preview or two. Alas life can truly be a big B at times my sister being a lazy git and refusing to at least try and write something up to update a fic or two doesn't help either. That aside this fic in particular will hopefully get me back into my grove of typing and updating at least something once a weel. The fic itself will be a mix of a Pledge to My King and Kyokai no ken but it takes a different route from the latter whole exorcist of the church motif, this one is a bit more lighthearted than its counterpart but will also be dark at times much like this prologue, you have been warned.

**Tags: Strong Naruto, Smart Naruto, Human Naruto, Hero Descendant Naruto, AU, Violence, Gore, Character Deaths, Ecchi, Minor Xovers, and general OOCness.**

**Pairings: ?**

**Unbeta'd**

**-Fortis-**

"If you're going to have a dream, why not dream big? You know? Like reach for the stars and all that stuff. Yes it'll be a hell of a lot more challenging to achieve that dream and at times you might get depressed and find yourself hoping to do the impossible, but you know what? It'll make it all the more sweeter when you turn that dream into reality."

-Naruto Namikaze

**-Fortis-**

**Arc 1: The Strongest Self-Proclaiming Human?**

**Prologue: The Story of Naruto Namikaze **

The sun was high in its zenith, with not a speck of cloud covering the wide blue sky.

Two children stood atop a small hill overlooking a large village, they smiled and they laughed as they ran and played around much like many kids their age. Well much like kids that played with kunais and shurikens, flinging deadly weapons at one another while using the energy called chakra to do inhuman feats and techniques.

Oh sweet childhood innocence, an ephemeral experience to say the least, ephemeral yet enjoyable but in the end it was not but a small part in their life.

The two children stopped playing, they did not know why, but their heads moved upwards to the great blue sky.

Then it happened.

There was a loud rumbling sound –an inhuman and bestial roar. The earth shook violently, the skies blackened much like the void, the wind died down causing a strange chill to rise, the plant life withered their lives faded away while the animals howled, chirped, and barked before running or flying wildly fleeing for their lives. All the while the citizens of the village seized their thoughts and actions – a cessation of their daily lives- as they looked up to the now darkened heavens a feeling dread creeping its way to their very souls.

But most importantly for the two children a top that small hill, the rumbling sound came as a signal to the end of their childhood days.

Those days crumbled like dust against the wind, much like the sky which suddenly cracked violently. It was like glass tinted with red lines as large ominous blood-red cracks appeared along the darkened heavens.

The sky shattered, black shards of what was once the sky fell to the ground like the fierce rain of a storm.

From the crack in the sky a large black draconic head came forth. Its hands soon followed as it pierced through skies with ease as it destroyed what was left of the sky. It opened its maw revealing large jagged teeth the size of large zanbatos, and much to the horror of everyone present to witness the event it inhaled –house and trees destroyed by very act- and then it exhaled, and fiery brimstone and sulfur shot from its mouth taking the form of hellish black fire. The flames moved like molten magma it spread forth and blessed the village with its destructive presence.

Not even a second later, and the village was already drowned in unholy flames –screams of death and pleas for help was only drowned out by the roars of the deadly beast.

Not even a second after that, those who survived were up and arms ready to face the beast that dared to attack their home- their own battle cries also drowned by that of the dragon's roar.

Though in the end their attacks seemed futile; the massive being that spat out the flames of hell itself was barely phased by their assault.

It was often said that trouble came in two or more.

Sadly the flames was but the first trouble the villagers had to deal with. Too caught up in the battle against the beast that these people were completely unaware that the dragon was just the beginning. An opening act to a performance many call a massacre.

The two children a top the hill were the first to see it, small black specks flooding through the cracks and crevice in the sky, it was an army. A legion of beings with bat like wings flew from the very cracks and crevice created by dragon. They descended from the skies like a swarm of hungry locusts yearning for the fresh wheat and grains.

And like a swarm of locust they devoured and destroyed all in their path.

The citizen's of the village stood no chance, most of them were much like defenseless lambs, with the inevitable fate of slaughter weighing heavily upon them.

The shock the two children felt was soon replaced by fear, anger, and dread as they bore witness to the massacre that slowly unfolded in their eyes like the acts of a tragic play written by Shakespeare. Their first instinct was to flee, but flee to where? This was their village. Their home, the people that they loved and cared for was trapped inside the besieged village that was in the middle of a sea of flames, and was surrounded by the flying beings that were killing all in their path.

But alas people tend to think irrationally when they are suddenly forced to act in what was a life and death situation. Common sense was quickly thrown out of the window and panic soon replaced it, any and all logical thoughts were lost when one of the kids, a girl with black hair, ran towards the village, desperate to a certain the safety of her parents and family. Her play mate was soon following her in tow. He ignored the voice inside his head telling him to flee. After all he wasn't the type of person who would leave a friend behind, and he too was worried about his family.

So the two children ran, they ran through the seas of flames, they ran through the blood and gore filled streets, they ran from the flying beings that sought out their death and destruction.

And in the ensuing chaos in the village the two children were separated, the boy with a golden-colored desperately reached out for the black-haired girl. But it was all for naught. They were separated, but while the two drifted apart they exchanged promises that they will meet again –their meeting place set instantaneously. There was only one place they could meet. A place known to both of them. They exchanged quick reassurances promising one another that This was not the end, they were going to walk out of this alive.

He watched her disappear in the seas of chaos, even if they went their separate ways with the girl, he was fully intent on keeping his promise no matter what it takes.

He would see her again and the two of them would escape this hell on earth.

And so the boy gritted his teeth and balled his fists as he ran towards the direction of his own home, completely unaware of what fate had in store for him.

**-Fortis-**

He ran through the once glorious streets, now bathed in blood and gore, willfully ignoring the cries and pleas for help as he searched for the one person who he lost when the chaos erupted. Normally he would stop and try to help others but for once in his life the boy decided to be selfish.

The survival of those he cared about weighed more to him than those random people that he knew nothing about.

The boy had already passed by his house, searched it high and low for any sign of his parents but found no one. This nearly sent him into an even higher frenzied state of panic but he quickly reassured himself that his parents were okay. After all the two of them were some of the strongest shinobi of this village. So with adrenaline pumping through his veins and his mind moving erratically he decided to make the best of his situation. Without a second thought he pillaged his own home for anything and everything he could use. Scrolls, Fuuma Shurikens, Shurikens, Swords, Kunais, all sealed and stored in scrools. He even had several of his family's famed tri-pronged Kunai.

In a span of a few seconds he took everything he could and left his home like a thief in the night, sneaking out like a shadow in hopes of evading the attention of the creatures that were destroying his home.

***Woosh*  
**

His senses screamed at him of the incoming danger from above. The boy didn't look up but instead followed is instincts as he drew one of his family's Tri Pronged Kunais.

He took a deep breath, his blue eyes going cold as ice as he steeled himself.

Prodigy, was a word often used when the villagers described him and his best friend. They were the best of the best, they who would have been the strongest of their generation.

Despite being a child, he was trained to fight, trained to kill, he was born and raised in the ways of the shinobi.

It was due to the insistence of his own father that he started his training in a young age, younger than even his own peers. Maybe it was foresight in the part of his father, or maybe a severe case of paranoia but in the end he couldn't help but thank his father for those pain staking lessons.

The boy crouched down and pressed two fingers in the ground. He tapped the earth lightly as he extended his senses.

A dark presence entered his body, whatever this things were they felt wrong, they were malicious, vile, dangerous, monstrous, and evil. Yes, evil would have been the best word to describe it. They were so sickening, so evil that he found himself sickened by their very presence.

He took a deep breath and felt a familiar tingle run through his body, like a warm and comfortable blanket. It felt like a gentle embrace. It felt right. It felt good. It was such a familiar feeling, the warm coursing of chakra that coursed throughout his body, filling each of his tenketsu with power.

It was time.

In a speed far exceeding the limitations of humanity, the boy kicked off the ground and left a small crater in his wake as he shot forward evading a downward slash from the bat winged creäture that would have beheaded him.

The boy knew for a fact that he wasn't the strongest shinobi in the village, he was far from it, but that didn't mean he would willingly give up and let the devil lop his head off without a fight.

He turned towards his attacked and for the first time got a good look of it –he refused to acknowledge it as a human being. It was an evil being with bat like wings that held a sword and wore the skin of a man. It reeked of violence and blood lust, but most of all it reeked of arrogance. A feeling of superiority as its blood-red eyes stared the boy down.

The boy could work with that.

He tossed his tri-pronged knife at his attacker, aiming from the creature's face while he gathered and molded chakra in his right hand.

Predictably the being with the bat like wing sneered closing its eyes as it moved its head to the side almost lazily to avoid the knife.

The creäture avoided the knife but when it opened its eyes the boy was nowhere in sight.

Before the devil realized it a large ball of condensed and spiraling chakra smashed against the side of its face. In its arrogance the devil failed to put up any sort of defense and that cause it the battle.

Flesh was twisted and torn, bones were broken and dusted, and organs were smashed and reduced to mush.

Without any hesitation the boy ended the devil's life by completely destroying its head with a **Rasengan (Spiralling Sphere)**.

The boy exhaled, after killing the creäture. Exhaustion entering his body like an unwanted guest, he had only used two techniques but both were rather taxing to his body. If it weren't for the boy's massive reserves he was sure that he would have already fainted.

He also realized that this was the first time that he actually killed someone, but he tossed those feelings aside, burying it deep within the recess of his mind. He was fighting against time, he knew his parents could take care of them selves, but his best friend was another thing, he needed to find her so they could escape together.

Yes, he promised himself that.

They would live to see another day.

**-Fortis-**

The world was on fire.

The smell of sulfur and brimstone lingered in the air, blanketing the heavy smell of ash and iron from the tens of thousands that were dying like mayflies on a warm summer day.

The young shinobi killed five more of those bats as he decided to call them, each life he destroyed took a harsh toll in both his body and reserves.

His once white jacket was matted with stains of blood and sooth, his black pants was full of cuts and gashes. He was breathing heavily, he was tired but he knew he had to move on.

He had a promise to keep after all.

The boy was running through the bloodied and burning streets, purposely ignoring every mutilated corpse that he passed. Eventually his legs took him towards a small clearing just outside the village, it was surrounded by burning trees, and smoke the carried the scent of hell and death billowed over the air like a dark rain cloud.

This place was the training ground that he and his friend used, and his first instinct was to go here. After all this was the place they promised to meet.

Now he just needed to wait for her, then they could figure away to get the hell out of this place. The boy just needed to stay patient, surely he can last an hour or two without getting into any kind of trouble.

"My oh my… so this here is the little troublemaker that took out a few of my servants."

Son of a-

All of the sudden the already burning trees that surrounded the forest combusted in even fiercer flames, a literal sea of flames now surrounded the training field leaving no escape routes, only deadly flames.

The boy's senses flared, every fiber of his body screamed at him, telling him to run for his life. To get as far away as possible to the person no thing who owned that voice.

"Interesting, you would not believe how interesting this expedition here has been. Yes, destroying through all those barriers and leading an attack to this place was definitely worth it." The voice came from beyond the flames, it was a calm and gentle voice, and it immediately both intimidated and infuriated the blond boy.

Within the boy's right hand he gripped a trip pronged blade. His knuckles were white and his palms bled under his nails, the anger he felt only increased the intense pressure of his hold.

"Why?" The boy asked, his voice carrying none of the exuberance commonly found in a child's voice but instead there was steel hidden beneath that one sole world. A steel so strong enough to slice down devils, but was also extremely fragile and brittle.

"Why?" A voice echoed from the flames, it carried no hint of malice but showed an unusual amount of mirth and amusement. "Do the ants beneath our feet get a reason before they are stomped to the ground? Nay. Reason is only given to those who a person views in equal standing. There is no need to give reason to pests and animals. They should just learn to accept their fate, a fate decided upon by a being of power, a superior being. In this case that being is me, my companions, and the friendly dragon who decided to help us take down those pesky seals and barriers."

The boy's senses buzzed, the hair on the back of his neck frizzled, warning him of an imminent danger coming from the flames. Without a second though he allowed his body to guide him, which allowed him to duck and roll forward just in time to avoid a spike of ice that would have torn through his throat had he not evaded.

"Hoh? That is unexpected. Unexpected but not all too surprising. After all you carry the blood and essence of him flowing through your blood and veins. At least that was what my master told me. Yes, in fact he told me of two clans that exists within this nation hidden from the world by magicks most powerful and ancient. Among the nation filled with beings that could freely use chakra those of the Namikaze and Uchiha are among the most dangerous. After all, they are descendants of humans that broke the ancient laws of this world."

The boy gritted bit his lip, iron filling his mouth as he quickly reached for his pockets with his free hand, drawing several shuriken as he spun around and tossed the deadly projectiles towards the place he thought the voice was coming from.

The boy hit nothing but the flames which quickly melted the thrown weapons.

"Not even close." This time the voice came from the boy's back, and yet again the boy was forced to dodge another icicle. This one aimed towards his chest. Although any semblance of elation or relief gained from evading death once more soon faded away as ice shot from the scorched earth. Intense coldness embraced the boy's body as he found himself encased with ice from the waist down.

"It seems this is where our game ends. It wasn't entertaining, a waste of time if I do say so myself. Then again it might be because I expected too much from a child who's barely out of their diapers." Much like the red sea from the bible the sea of flames parted, and from said flames one of those ting that looked like a man clad in an outfit reminiscent of a butler walked out, its long silver hair tied in a braid was undisturbed by the intense flames which were moving away as if to avoid the thing.

"Now then boy, would you mind telling me where the **[Sage's Transcripts]** are? They're some parchments passed down through your family line. Your parents weren't very forth coming in answering my questions but I know you are aware of the location of the item I am looking for. "

The boy struggled in a desperate attempt to escape his icy prison, he tried to throw the three-pronged blade away to use it to escape but it too was encased with ice, before it fell to the ground and shattered turning to a fine mist of icy dust. "Let me go! I don't know what you're talking about you silver-haired Okama!"

"Oh how your words hurt me so." The man moved in an exaggerated manner and placed his hand upon his chest and recoiled as if he was hurt by the boy's words. "But alas I hope you coöperate better than your parents did. If you do so I may even let you live."

A pair of blue eyes widened in shock as he realized the underlying meaning of his opponents words. His parents were dead, this vile being killed his parents. His body shook with rage, uncaring of the cold as a feeling of utmost sorrow bloomed within his soul. "No, you're lying! Tou-san and Okaa-chan are strong! They can't be gone! No they can't! You lying okama!"

"Ah, but such is the fragility of human life. They broke so easily. Who knew that their minds were so fragile? Just a slight prod here and there and their minds cracked. Honestly it was careless of me to do that. Now I have to result to asking from their offspring about the transcripts." The man said, his features showed that he was telling nothing but the truth.

"No... No... You MONSTER!" The boy yelled out with renew vigor despite the fact that he had already lost his sensations from the waist down.

"I prefer the term **[Devil]**, after all that is what I am." The devil smiled serenely as it extended its hand and cupped the boy's chin tilting it upwards. "Now will you tells me where those papers are? My master needs them, he needs them badly for his goals."

"Fuck you!" The boy spat out in anger. Meaning he literally spat out a large wad of blood and spit, nailing the devil in the forehead.

The devil blinked in surprise. "My oh my, such a dirty mouth from a foul boy. I remember the first time I cursed like that, my Onee-chan was very unhappy with me. Do you know what she did to me because of it?" The devil smiled as it moved it's free hand and placed a finger on the boy's shoulder.

The boy felt the tap of a finger brush against his skin before his world exploded in an intense amount of pain. His bones cracked, muscles were torn, blood splattered about, pain receptors exploded with over stimulation.

With but a tap the boy's right arm exploded in gore.

"She beat me up, such harsh and cruel sisterly love. In the end it was all for the best. Since then not a curse has left my mouth and I love my sister ever so dearly for it. Just one of the many gifts she gave to me. Ah, how I miss her so." The devil took a deep breath, the sound of the boy's screams was like the finest of concertos playing in his ears.

"Ahh... Now do you feel like speaking boy? Can you point me to the direction of those scriptures? I would really love for my master to have them as they may cure him from the slump that befell him since the Great War. After all it isn't every day that we can acquire information about the other worlds that exists beyond the Dimensional Gap."

"Grrr... F-huh... Hah..."

"What was that? Speak up boy."

"Fu- huh hah...-ck... You... Hah... Huh..." The boy replied defiantly

"A pity, defiant to the end. Such stubbornness is really endearing at times." The silver-haired devil gazed upon the boy's eyes, and within them the devil could see the conviction that not many possessed.

Ah to be young and foolish again.

"I guess that leads me no choice but to pry the information out of your mind." The devil's left hand moved quickly, as it was placed on the top of the boy's head.

Though before he could forcibly pry the information out of the boy's mind, a loud voice bellowed around the burning clearing. "Naaarruu!" The voice echoed from the flames, a feminine voice, filled with youth and a tinge of fear and desperation.

The devil's smile widened as he looked towards the flames, and took a few steps away from the wounded boy. "Oh my, I wonder who that could be." The devil turned to the boy and again looked him in the eye and for the first time in their whole confrontation he could see cracks appear in the boy's conviction. Not even getting his arm blown off was enough to make that conviction waver even a bit.

"Tell me where the transcripts are or from what I'm guessing your little friend will suffer an even worse fate then your parents."

Blue eyes stared at the devil in horror as the thing raised its right hand. "With a snap of my finger I can summon a horde of lesser devils. A horde who would no doubt enjoy both the tastes and pleasures of a young flesh. Would you want to see it? Your friend getting raped and brutalized in front of you? Would you like to watch as she screams in both pain and pleasure until her sanity snaps? Until she becomes so accustomed to the pain and pleasures that she begins to beg for it like a common whore? I wonder will you take pleasure in knowing that you will be responsible for whatever fate befalls your friend."

"No! No! Don't hurt her! I'll tell you what you want just promise me you won't hurt her!" The steel cracked and crumbled to dust underneath the sudden pressure forced upon it.

The silver-haired devil grinned. "I promise, you have my word as a Devil that I will not harm her."

And so the boy told him of the transcript's location, a hidden vault beneath the mountains nearest the village. It was the place where all the treasures of the Sage was located. This place was their family's secret passed down from word of mouth from father to son. His father informed him of the site a few months ago, and now he was willingly trading the information to their murderer for the safety of his friend.

He felt both happy and sick with himself.

The devil smiled. "My master would be most pleased. See was that so hard?" The devil asked as he lowered his right hand bringing it back to the level of his chest. "As promised I will spare your friend."

The boy glared at the devil, tears forming from the side of his eyes, as he gritted his teeth while doing his best to ignore the physical pain he felt from his crippling wounds along with the emotional pain that struck him like a sledgehammer.

His village was destroyed.

His parents were dead.

He betrayed his parent's trust.

But still the boy did, what he did best. He endured. To be a shinobi was to endure, and he would endure this pain and come out even stronger than before, but first he needed to survive. He needed to get out of the ice that trapped his legs…

He needed to…

His thoughts stopped, put in a complete halt, as pain overwhelmed his senses. It hurt. His chest hurt and it felt so cold. The boy's head shifted downwards, his blue eyes was flooded with the sight of crystalline white marred with red, a strange union between ice and blood. The devil's ice magic, and his own blood.

There lodged upon the boy's chest was a large icicle, big enough to stab through not only the boy's heart but also his lungs.

From the distance the boy heard a shocked gasp followed by pain filled screams calling for him.

"Do not worry, I will keep my promise. I will not harm your friend, but I will not be responsible for the actions of the elements, nor those of my fellow devils, or the dragon. She will live through this if she has the ability to survive. You however will not be so lucky." The silver-haired devil said as the ice encasing the boy's leg vanished allowing the boy to fall back first to the ground.

The devil looked down at the boy, staring at the cold blue eyes that were slowly losing their light.

The boy's vision blurred, he could barely see, but he clearly heard the devil's words. "If there was one thing you should really curse it is simply yourself. All of this happened because of one simple fact. Humans are weak, you are weak. Blame your own weakness for the fate that befell upon you." And with that the silver-haired devil vanished from the boy's sight left leaving the body of a dying boy in the hellish landscape which was once the greatest village of the **[Elemental Nations]**.

As for the boy, he laid steadily on the ground, his blood flowing out of his veins, as his life was quickly fading away.

The boy could feel it, he was dying.

"Naru!" The boy heard a familiar voice reach his ears, this time it was closer than it was before, but he did not have the strength to look towards her direction.

It came to him as a blur but he heard the sound of a gasp, then of feet moving quickly against the ground, which was followed by soft sobs as he felt two hands shake his body. A sensation he barely picked up.

'God damn it.' The boy cursed as he felt droplets of tears fall upon his face.

He really hated it when she cried.

He tried to open his mouth, to speak and comfort her, to tell her it was going to be okay, but he knew for a fact that it wasn't and he didn't like lying to her, after all she was his closest friend. Why was it that reality had to be cruel? Why was it never oh so kind? He was going to die today, and if she kept crying over him then she too would die.

He didn't want her to die, he already had one foot in the grave, he didn't want to drag her along with him. What kind of friend was he if he would willingly put his own friend's life at risk for his own?

Gathering what was left of his strength he willed his left hand to move. It slowly rose up and found its way upon the girl's cheek.

The girl's eyes widened in shock, as she clutched the boy's hand like a life line. Her mouth opened but no words reached the boy's ears.

Instead the boy looked the girl straight in the eye, his blue orbs meeting her tear filled onyx colored ones. Then he smiled at the girl, a toothy grin. His teeth marred with blood, and with his life hanging by a thread the boy moved his lips and mouthed out one word to the girl.

"Live"

The world around the boy then faded to darkness.

**-Fortis-**

When the boy opened his eyes, and his vision was filled with a tone of low orange, a distant glowing orange, which came from a far much like the rays of the sun.

'Is this the afterlife?' The boy thought, as he slowly got up, he felt no pain, no exhaustion. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. When he stood up he saw that all of his wounds were gone, his right arm was fixed, and there was no hole in his chest. All the gashes and smaller wounds he got from his other fights were gone as well. He felt so good, never better. Yet despite that…

The boy's hand went to his chest, his hand left hand firmly resting upon his heart.

…He didn't feel at peace.

He clutched his hand against his chest.

He failed do anything to help those that were being attacked due to his own selfishness.

He pilfered from his own home and hoped for the best as his parents were murdered.

He betrayed the secrets of his family to the very being that destroyed his village.

He left his best friend crying over his body.

He died and he broke his promise to her.

All of it was because he was too weak, he was too powerless to make a difference, and his weakness cost him everything, even his own life.

The boy didn't even realize that tears were already streaming down his face.

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it Damn it!" The boy curse out as he screamed towards the heavens. He died and failed. He failed to protect his precious people. He failed to keep his promise.

If only he was stronger, then maybe it wouldn't have ended like this.

"**Do you want power?"** A soft whisper reached the boy's ears.

"...Huh?" The boy actually blinked, and for the first time his blue eyes scanned his current surroundings.

He was in a vast field full of grass, trees, and the occasional large rock or two, it looked much like one of the training fields in his home when it was underneath the overwhelming presence of the orange tinted sky that came from a distance.

The boy moved his head from left to right, and up to down, until his eyes settled into the distance. There a top a large rock far away from the field sat a figure that was shadowed by the orange sky. Despite the massive shadows created by the orange light the young shinobi could pick up small details about the man who sat atop the rock.

He could see a head of spiky hair, though he could not see the color.

He could see a pair of golden colored eyes with cross-like irises.

He could see what looked like a cloak –no a haori- that the man wore.

He could see a black staff embedded upon the earth and sticking out from it, right next to it was a small sleeping animal, something like a cat? Or fox? The boy wasn't really sure.

"**Do you want power?" **The voice was filled with warmth, it was gentle, kind, and reassuring and yet it was also powerful, incredibly so. It was like he was talking with that devil again but only this time he didn't feel sick instead he felt safe, he felt protected.

Why did it feel so nostalgic?

"…Yes." The boy replied before he even realized it.

There was a small pause, a short minute or two of silence that made the boy wonder if he answered incorrectly.

"…**What will you do?" **

"What will I do?" The boy tilted his head to the side as he repeated the man's words.

"**If you have it? Possess an insurmountable of power? I can give it to you if you'd like. Power comparable to those of beings from myths and legends? With a snap of a finger you could destroy mountains. On a whim you can cause disasters. You can destroy all that stands against you, murder millions if you wished. So what will you do if you have that kind of power?"**

"Protect." The boy replied without hesitation. The steel of his resolve that shattered upon his encounter with the devil quickly repairing itself, making it stronger than ever before. "I want to be strong, strong enough to be able to protect those I care about! I want to be strong to prevent things like this from happening ever again! So yes! I want power! I don't care who you are. Even if you're real or not, if you can help me get strong, strong enough so that I won't fail like this again then I don't care what I need to pay you! Just give me the strength I need, the power that will allow me to be the strongest!"

Again there was silence for a few minutes as the man who sat atop the rock seemed to think about the boy's words

"**Yare… yare… such a stubborn and selfish brat."**

"Oi I'm not a brat! Others say I'm mature for my age! Heck I'm not even short! I'm like super tall for my age!"

"…**I didn't say anything about you being short."**

The boy who was actually pretty short recoiled in response as if he was struck. "Geck."

"**Hehehe… it's like looking at a mirror."** Although the voice said it in exasperation, there was a hint of amusement in it. **"A mirror that makes a person look shorter."**

"Oi who are you calling short!"

"**You."**

The boy staggered back again as if he was punched in the gut. He couldn't help it that he was actually one of the shortest of his age group and was often teased about it. Heck even his best friend teased him for being a short, and she was barely taller than him.

"**Hey brat be honest with me. If you get that kind of power, what will you use it for?"**

"I already told you." The boy started, his blue eyes meeting the golden-colored ones that belonged to the man. "I will protect those that I care for. My precious people."

Though he could not see it because of the shadows, the boy was sure that the man was smiling at that very moment.

"**You know you remind me of someone. Once upon a time there was a boy much like you. He was stubborn, head strong, and a bit foolish, but once he set his mind into something he'll never go back until he accomplishes it. He was a good boy, a great lad. Although I swear that the person you remind me of is infinitely more handsome and awesome than you are, and will ever hope to be."**

"Did you just praise and insult me at the same time?"

"**Maybe." **The man who sat atop the rock stood up, the orange coloured sky still shrouded him, hiding most of his features. The man then grabbed the staff and used it to slightly nudge the small animal by his side, waking it up.

Apparently it wasn't cat.

It was a fox, a small one with nine tails, and what looked like man hands.

The boy's right hand rose slowly as he pointed at the small nine tailed fox. "Is it just me or those that fox looks weird? I mean foxes aren't supposed to have hands like that, right?"

"**Pfft. I had the same reaction when I first saw him, truth be told I though it looked really weird with its freaky looking man hands, not to mention those nine tails, and that oh so violent temper. He also had this lovely personality back then, and he was like free me or I'll will eat you! Hehehe good times, good times."**

There was a loud crunching sound in the air as the small fox bit the figure's leg…

"**I will give you some power. But I won't give you all of it. You need to earn it, through hard work you would be able to reach the levels of power that you wish for."**

…and was promptly ignored.

"**I will unlock you're potential. The potential that exists within all those from our line. Like jiji did for me, I will do unto you. For we have the power of the youngest, that which presides over bonds, the power of [Asura]." **

The man disappeared in blur, completely vanishing from the boy's sight, leaving only the fox which landed face first on the ground.

Before he even realized it, the boy's right hand was clasped against a larger and more calloused hand that gripped his hand with the force of a light handshake.

The boy looked up to see a face that would match the voice but he was forced to quickly closed his eyes as he was nearly blinded by a large and intense flash of gold that was accompanied by an immense amount of power that easily dwarfed the boy's own.

It was as if he was standing next to the sun.

"**From the Second to the one with the potential to become the Third. Face and defeat the darkness and you will rise to great heights, and with it you will achieve what you yearn for. Even the most complicated of a dreams will turn into reality." **There was a small pause as the next words came out as a soft and gentle whisper. **"The future generation was always meant to surpass the earlier ones. May you be the one, the person to surpass me. The world needs such a person. And if, no when you succeed then you'd be close to achieving the dream that is lingering in the surface of your mind."**

Just as fast as he appeared the man vanished once more, and this time he appeared perched atop his rock once more. His left hand holding the staff while his right hand was petting the head of the fox that was previously on the floor. **"This is as much as I can help you. Doing anything more will upset the balance of the world and will attract the attention of those bastards. It might even make them get off their lazy assess and come back to the world of man. Let's just hope it won't come to that or you'll have to kiss your dream and this world goodbye." **The man hidden by the shadows of the orange light suddenly yawned. "**You're potential is unlocked. From here on out whatever you do is your own responsibility, so you better man up and face them if you make any mistakes. Now go on, wake up. Shoo you brat. A man even as awesome and godlike as I needs some of his beauty sleep." **The man's left hand moved from the hand and started doing shooing motions and with it what looked light golden started to flood the field.

"Wait!"The boy shouted, as a new feeling started to bloom within him. He felt power coursing through his veins. It was much more potent than his chakra, much more powerful. It was as if life itself was coursing through his veins.

Yet as he thought a mere few minutes ago.

Why did it feel so familiar?

"**What is it brat?"**

"Just who are you?"

"**Hmm that is- that's." **For but a moment the boy saw a mischievous grin flash through the shadows. **"That's a secret."**

The man atop the rock vanished along with the large field as the world around the boy was filled and covered by a golden colored light.

**-Fortis-**

With a loud groan, the boy opened his eyes.

He then found himself blinking a few times, several times actually, until his mind fully caught up to what he was seeing. He was covered in dirt, and surrounding him -his whole body- as far as his eyes could see was even more dirt.

It only took him a few seconds to realize why.

He was buried in what was most likely his grave.

Shit.

Before panic could even settle in the boy found himself reflexively using his chakra to get out of his grave. As expected chakra did help him free himself. Though what he did not expect to happen was for the earth surrounding him to explode outwards creating a large crater upon the earth when he flared his chakra.

His now golden coloured chakra that seemed to dance along his body.

"This is awesome!**" **He looked all over his body and found that it was covered by a cloak of golden-colored chakra. His looked like a mess but he would worry about that later. Instead his eyes looked down on his chest, his bare chest, and saw a large scar in place of his wound. He then looked at his right hand, it was back in place, and on his palm was symbol, a plain black circle.

Again he would worry about that weird symbol that appeared out of nowhere later.

He stood up albeit slowly while dusting his body of the dirt and dust that once belonged to his grave. Although there was no wounds his body still ached with pain and was still filled exhaustion. It seems that the guy who he met didn't fully heal him but beggars couldn't be choosers. Whoever that guy was probably saved his life, and he will be forever grateful for that fact.

Yet the boy didn't care really think too deeply about that fact, no instead he looked around, his eyes scanning his surroundings and what his eyes found was saddening to say the least. What remained of his old village was still covered in flames but the scent of blood still lingered in the air.

He didn't spot any of those devils, nor did he spot that large black dragon, but what worried him the most was that his friend was nowhere in sight.

He just hoped she survived.

If she did then at least he could still find her, and eventually reunite with her in the future. That and he felt an immature need to get back at her for burying him. It was an understandably nice gesture but it sucked waking up six feet under.

If- No when he finds her he will make sure to tell her to cremate him if he dies.

That was if she didn't try to kill him on sight for being all stupid and dying in front of her, but knowing her she'll probably try to kill him for it.

Damn for some reason that felt scarier than trying to fight that silver-haired devil again.

He frowned.

Next time he saw that silver-haired okama he was going to make sure to kick the things ass to next week, a Rasengan or two in the face won't hurt as well.

"Everyone's probably dead." A tired sigh escaped the boy's lips as he started walking towards his village, a temporary goal already formed in his mind. "I couldn't help anyone. In the end I was too selfish, and because of that a lot of people died. I'm sorry for that, the least I can do is bury your corpses." The young blond whispered to himself as he kept on walking, dragging his groggy body along as headed towards his now destroyed village.

Hopefully he'd find his friend there.

That was if she was still alive.

If not he'd bury her beside her family.

She deserved at least that much for putting up with him through all this years, for being such a good friend to him -that brash brat who had no friends and kept getting into fights with other kids, the heir of the Namikaze Family, and the shortest but loudest brat in the neighborhood, Naruto Namikaze.

And on that day, as he walked towards the village with plans of burying the dead, a dream formed within the boy's mind, a dream that will likely take him many years or even life times to accomplish.

It was both a foolish and an innocent wish.

From that day on the boy would strive to accomplish his wish...

Naruto stopped walking for a moment, his eyes moving up towards the sky, the darkness was already gone, and the first rays of a new day was there to greet him. A small smile momentarily appeared on the boy's lips but it was gone a second later. "I promise to never be weak again." He closed his eyes shielding himself from the first golden rays as he placed his right palm against his chest. He took a deep breath, taking in the cold morning air that was still filled with the stench of death. "Never ever again." The boy opened his eyes, a pair of blue orbs that glowed with an unflinching resolve.

…to become the strongest.

**Prologue: END**

**-Fortis-**

"I was reborn on that day, surrounded by dirt from my own grave and the remnant of the flames that devoured my village. With the bastard devil's words still in my mind, I found myself a new purpose in life. That day I swore to myself that I will never allow such a tragedy from ever occurring again, I will never get anyone I care about killed again. I will not watch them die! I will protect them! I will not be weak, never ever again. To protect those precious to me I don't care what stands in my way, be it heaven or hell, [Satan] or [God], Hell they can even be [The Infinity] or [The Dream]! I will bring them down if I have to! Because that day I promised myself that **I WILL BE THE STRONGEST, THE STRONGEST OF THE STRONG** and I will never go back on my promise dattebayo!"

-Naruto Namikaze

**-Fortis-**

**Notes: Fortis- **The latin word for strong i.e Naruto's wish in becoming the strongest.

**EN:**I would like to say this now just to make it clear **Naruto is not an avenger,** he is indifferent about devils and he doesn't go bat shit insane around them. He doesn't generalize and hate all devils due to his experience, he only hates two devils, the one who attacked him, lead the destruction of his village, killed his parents, and threatened his friend as well as the guy's master. Those are the only two devils that might and I use might rather heavily evoke Batshit insane mode avenger Naruto. Emphasis on might and I mean heavy emphasis on the damned word. Also kudos to who ever gets who attacked and destroyed the elemental nations.

**Please Review ^w^**


	2. Setting The Stage

**Fortis**

**Disclaimer:**I do not own Naruto, nor do I own High School D x D. I think it's obvious by now.

**AN:**Hey there guys this is O-U again and gasp I've updated two weeks in a row. Tis a miracle, a rather depressing one actually as I'm still being held to just updating one fic at a time. So yeah as said in the prologue this chapter will be more on the lighthearted and comedic side and not oh so dark and gloomy, if that is not your cup of tea then I have to apologize since half of the story is like this while the latter half is darker, expect many a mood whiplashes.

**Tags: Strong Naruto, Smart Naruto, Human Naruto, Hero Descendant Naruto, AU, Violence, Gore, Character Deaths, Ecchi, Minor Xovers, and general OOCness.**

**Pairings: ?**

**Unbeta'd**

**-Fortis-**

"Move onwards and forgo grief along with mourning and embrace life and all its majestic gifts. Seize the day for tomorrow we die. I don't really know when I'm going to kick the bucket, when some sucker gets lucky enough and off me, but I do know that I'm going to live my life to the fullest before that happens. I'll do what I want, and enjoy life the way I want to despite what other people say. "

Naruto Namikaze

**-Fortis-**

**Arc 1: The Strongest Self-Proclaiming Human.**

**Chapter 1: Setting The Stage/ The Greatest Enemy/ The Things I Do For My Friends/ Destined Meetings.**

**Air Transat Flight 380 -Airbus A330- Somewhere over the North Atlantic Ocean**

A female flight attendant walked down the aisle of the plane with a small twitching smile on her face. Normally it would have been time for her break, a few minutes to gossip and talk with her colleagues before returning to work and serving to the needs of the people taking the flight. However what little time she had for her break was cut off by some complaints coming from the people in the first class, a little more complaints in the business class, and a lot of complaints coming from the frustrated and exasperated passengers of the economy class.

She passed by the first class and could hear a bit of the problem, upon passing the business class it became a bit clearer what she was about to face, but upon entering the last class- the one in the end of the plane- she found herself facing the full brunt of a loud and unruly voice that could have in all intents and purposes ruptured her eardrums from the sheer volume of the nonsensical singing that crashed against her ears.

The flight attendant actually recoiled and took a step back, caught completely off guard by the intensity of the singing. It took her a few seconds to steel herself, the sound of her gulping and footsteps were drowned out by the eerie noise as she slowly made her way to the last seat at the very back of the plane where the culprit say.

Eyes followed her every footsteps as the passengers- barring the culprit- of the economy class gave her a pleading look, begging her to put a stop to the cause of their suffering.

She gave them a wry smile and apologetic bow of her head as she passed by, giving them no reassurances as she herself was not sure how to deal with the problem without resorting to calling the undercover officers stationed in the business class.

"Um, sir." She called out as she reached the last seat in the last row of the last class of the plane. It was there that a man in his late teens with spikes blond hair sat, eyes closed and a pair of head set closing off his ears to the world. He was wearing a pair of rugged looking combat boots and an equally rugged set of dark blue jeans that was matched by a long-sleeved orange shirt adorned with black tribal mark designs and a white kanji for fire along his chest, over that he wore a pitch black fitting coat that was left open to show off his shirt along with the well sculptured muscles that was slightly making itself known through the orange coated fabric.

The flight attendant would be lying to herself if she didn't admit that the young man was handsome and that she actually blushed for a second or two…

"**WE ARE FIGHTING DREAMERS!"**

…Too bad he had a horrible singing voice and he basically ignored her as he kept bobbing his head back and forth to the tune of whatever song was playing on his Iphone.

"**Takami no mezashite (Aiming High)"**

"Um, sir?" She tried asking once more, and was again ignored.

"**Fighting Dreamers Narifuri kamawazu (Fighting Dreamers, not caring about appearances)"**

"Sir?" She asked, this time her voice a bit higher than before, and was again ignored.

"**Fighting Dreamers Shinjiru ga mama ni (Fighting Dreamers, because we believe)"**

"SIR!" She practically screamed out only to get the same result as before.

"**Oli Oli Oli Oh- Just go my way! RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW-"**

"EXCUSE ME SIR!" The flight attendant screeched from the top of her lungs, her voice reverberated throughout the compartment and actually forced the passengers of the class to place their hands on their ears to avoid further damaging their ears.

This time she got a response, a pair of sky blue eyes opened, staring at the heavily breathing flight attendant with a hint of curiosity. The head that held those blue orbs tilted to the side, with a small grin complementing the teen's features. "Yare yare no need to scream mam. You know you're disturbing the other passengers?"

Again any appreciation for the young man's feature came to a complete halt in the flight attendant's mind, and her entire body simply twitched rather violently upon hearing the young man's words. "Sir, if you could please tone your singing down a bit, you're disturbing some of the other passengers." The flight attendant asked as politely as she could.

"Um? Really? I wasn't really singing that loud right? I mean you were just screaming your lungs off a few seconds ago and I have to say if someone between that two of us is loud it would be you." The blond quickly replied, his head still bobbing back and forth.

The flight attendant twitched once more. "No sir the people of the first class and the pilots in the cockpit could actually hear your voice singing that song, and you're sitting here in the last row of Economy."

The blond flippantly waved his right hand towards the flight attendant. "Yeah yeah, I'm here in economy. I'm poor and couldn't afford first class big whoop, wanna make a big deal about it?"

"Sir, please don't change the subject." With her patience running extremely thin, she decided to be completely frank and honest with the teen. "You were practically singing your lungs out to the point that it actually caused turbulence, the pilots are confused, the people in first class disgruntled, the ones in business irritated, and the people here in Economy looks like their ready to jump off-board just to get silence they desperately seek."

"Ahahaha was it really that bad?" The blond scratched the back of his head with his left hand while his right hand moved not all too discretely towards the flight attendant. "Umm this is not the awesome singing guy you were looking for." He said as he gestured his right hand in away reminiscent to that one guy with those droids.

"Sir would you please be serious for a moment."

The young man sitting in the last row of economy sighed as he stared at the flight attendant. "Um why so serious? I mean, I'm really sorry if I come off the wrong way to you but that's just the way I am, and quite frankly right now I'm in a pretty crappy mood and the only thing that's keeping me from blowing up is this awesome song. So yeah sorry about it but you can't stop me from singing! Behold the power of the sound of music!" The bobbing of the head intensified. "**We are fighting dreamers!**"

"Sir I insist that you stop singing or else…"

A curious brow rose from the blond. "Or else what?"

A few minutes later the young man found himself handcuffed and surrounded by two large men who were apparently part of some sort of secret service agents that were stationed in the business class for added security.

"Well shit." Naruto Namikaze grumbled from his bonds. The plane didn't even land yet and he already in trouble. Hell it was barely thirty minutes after they left the airport. This must have been a new kind of record for him.

Why didn't he just use **Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God)** again? Oh wait, he didn't leave any markers near his destination because it might cause an international incident that would have an entire faction after him.

Yep that wouldn't be a smart idea.

"Why am I here again?" He asked as he tilted his head to the side and started humming to the tune of the song he was singing earlier, much to the irritation of the two guards and the flight attendant who were watching him with constant vigilance like a certain deceased wizard with an eye problem.

"Oh yeah... I'm here because of that prick." He mumbled and looked upwards, his eyes meeting the white ceiling of the interior part of the plane. "Goddamn it sometimes your more trouble than your worth you prick."

**-Fortis-**

**The Prick's Lab-Super-Secret Base-Exact Location Unknown**

**A few days ago **

The road to becoming the strongest was filled with all kinds of adversities. There are many enemies and trials that lay hidden in this deadly road. After nearly ten years of walking this path after being reborn in hell fire and blood, one Naruto Namikaze was fully aware of the dangers that lurked in his deadly ascent to the top of the world.

In his ascent he found himself fighting beings from every aspect of various mythologies, demons, devils, angels, fallen angels, youkai, vampires, werewolves, reapers, valkyries, magus, heroes, a butt loving half devil battle maniac, aliens, the occasional robot or two, and even the great and devastating beings known as dragons.

T'was a dangerous path indeed, one not taken by any normal men with a semblance of a working mind or sanity, but then again Naruto Namikaze was far from normal, at least as far as those who observed his actions were concerned. It even came to the point that he young man's status as a human was heavily questioned by all. After all, what kind of human willingly goes against and defeats the forces that were supposed to be beyond his comprehension.

However at this very moment, as his body twitched violently from where he stood, Naruto Namikaze found himself facing on of his greatest enemy on the road to becoming the strongest. A constant nemesis that snuck around and manage to directly attack and cripple him several times. One of the greater opponents he ever had to face, and come blow to blow against.

Finances.

In other words he and by extension the rag-tag but awesome people in his group that he called his friends were broke as fuck, and were in the deep end of the holy shit I'm super poor spectrum.

"What do you mean were in the red again?" Naruto Namikaze asked with his left brow twitching as he tried to act as calm as he could be while he stood with another man in what looked like an extremely worn out and ragged laboratory filled with all kinds of machinery, half of which looked like they were ready to blow up in a moment's notice, a fact that the blond quickly ignored for the sake of allocating most of his attention to the argument at hand. "I just completed a job last week and earned us enough cash to last us a few months! Heck a whole freaking year! I destroyed an entire pack of werewolves and a small coven of vampires during a full moon for Kami's sake!" Naruto shouted as he pointed an accusing finger at one of his friends, one of his group's resident magus, a man of German descent wearing a black muscle shirt with a silver cross design and a pair of black pants, shoes, and gloves. The magus looked like he was in his mid-twenties, and he had a head of spikey silver hair, a small silver goatee, and vampiric red eyes.

The magus/treasurer had the gall to look a bit sheepish and apologetic as he scratched the back of his head with one hand, his red eyes purposely avoiding the blond's icy blue ones. "Well our group used up all those funds for… well… stuff."

"Stuff?"

"You know this stuff… and those stuff… and other stuff. A lot of stuff actually."

"What the heck is this stuff? Why was it so important that it had to eat through all of our group's savings?"

"It was pretty good stuff." The red-eyed man admitted with a big smile on his face. "Definitely some good stuff."

"You're not making any sense."

The vampiric magus nodded proudly. "Good then you're still with me here."

Naruto's left eyebrow twitched, the urge to hurt something rising within him to levels that exceeded the nine thousand range. "No you lost me when you opened your mouth and started spouting about that Stuff, which again I still have no idea as to what that stuff is!"

The other man sighed as he gave the blond a somewhat pitying look. "I know listening can be hard at times for someone like you Naruto but you need to be more attentive when we deal with monetary issues. Regardless of what the money was spent on we need more of them in order for our group to survive. I mean we can't all be in lala land like you are half tie times, really sometimes I wonder how we survive under your leadership."

A tick mark appeared over the twitching brow. "I will punch you in the face, if you don't get to the point."

"So as I was saying due to the lack of our funding almost every other member of our group has gone out to do a job or two."

"Oi don't ignore me!"

"Based on my calculations using my Infinite World Theorem along with a minor application of divination on the fox's part, I was able to calculate that at least half of those jobs that they took will actually result in our group getting out of the red zone." The German scratched his silver goatee. "Truth be told I can see us being in greater debt than ever before because of all the potential trouble and general mayhem and disaster that the others could find themselves in. Aside from Ken-kun who has about a hundred percent chance of going through a request without destroying something all the others are teetering below safe levels. Though it would be entertaining to see all the chaos they would make. Hell they could even level a town or two or even a school while they're at it."

"I trust them to pull through in the end. They're nakama, after all." Naruto replied showing his full trust with the members of his group and completely ignoring the fact that he was probably the second or the most destructive person in their circle. Hence despite taking the highest paying jobs he tended to lose a good part of the reward money for repairs to all the damage that he made. "Though why would they destroy a school?"

"Because school sucks." The vampire magic user answered without a beat.

"Didn't you say you were some big wing badass magical professor a few years back?"

"Yep, and being around students all the time made me develop a severe distaste for all that is related to the S-word. Although I could do with some of those cute intern girls. Hehehe they were always so fun to play with." A perverted chuckle accompanied by a creepy and ominous aura wafted from the silver-haired man.

This time Naruto really did punch the magus in the face.

"What the hell was that for?" The man clutched his now bleeding nose. "Is it because I got laid more times than you? Is it because I tapped those cute interns? Huh? Is that why you punched me? Or perhaps you were looking for a scrap? Huh you want some of this?" The magus tapped his chest before flexing his muscles in an exaggerated way. "This is a hundred and twenty percent badass vampire magus here blondie. Even Evangeline would think twice when messing with this! So you want some of this? You sure you can even handl-"

He was promptly punched again by Naruto, with his fist breaking the sound barrier several times over, the force of the punch itself actually caused the wind to pick up, and the ground beneath the path of the fist to crack under pressure. Yet despite all that the German took the blow which would have killed any normal man to the face head on, and didn't even flinch or looked bothered after wards. The only sign that the punch did any damage was a bruise that appeared over the vampire's cheek.

"Will you please be serious for a change?" Naruto asked as he shook his fist, his knuckles slightly red as smoke surrounded the offending limb.

"I'm not Sirius, that's some other magic user from Britain. Interesting fellow really, met his grandson a few years back, another interesting lad, too bad his godfather died Sirius died." The vampire rubbed his nose a few times, the bleeding already stopped, and the bruise he got from the second punch was quickly healing as well. "Oh spoilers by the way."

Naruto sighed in frustration, he felt that his friend was breaking the metaphysical laws of the world again. "Do you need a third punch to the face Zel?"

"Jeez fine." The vampire waved his hand above his head in an exaggerated manner. "Well since you're the leader and it is the leader's responsibility to keep us above the red, I thought you would be interested in this." The man now known as Zel took out a piece of paper from his pocket and effortlessly tossed it at Naruto.

The former resident of the elemental nations took one look at the piece of paper before he tossed it back to Zel for once surprising the vampire.

"Okay, what the hell was that for?" Zel asked truly confused for the first time in their conversation.

"I DO NOT NEED AN ADD FOR HOOKERS! ESPECIALLY AN ADD FOR SOME KINKY BSDM SHIT! OH GOD DOES THAT LEATHER! AND THAT CLAMP! KEEP YOUR FETISHES TO YOURSELF YOU PERVERTED VAMPIRE!"

The vampire looked down on the crumpled piece of paper and saw that it was indeed an ad for kinky sex. "Oh, wrong piece of paper. Hahahaha, the thing I wanted to show you must have been in the other pocket." Zel pulled out another piece of paper from his opposite pocket and passed it to Naruto.

Naruto looked at the sheet while silently muttering stuff about perverted vampire, but upon seeing the parchment the blond found himself blinking a few times. "Huh? 5 Million Euros? That's certainly a hefty amount and the mission is simple enough, just need to retrieve some swords, how hard can that be." His eyes trailed off. "So I just need to meet this guy named Michael huh? Common name, must be an alias buy meh sign me in." The shinboi folded the parchment and pocketed it. "So where do I go?"

The magus smiled, an eerie and mischievous smile that sent the blond shinobi on edge. "St. Peter's Basilica."

Naruto actually paled a bit as those three words echoed in his mind. "…but wait isn't that in."

"The Vatican." The vampire completed the shinobi's words for him.

"The Vatican..."

"Aye."

The shinobi looked at Zel in the eye. "You know I got in a fight with the Vatican's strongest exorcist Dulio Gesualdo a few months ago, right?"

Zel nodded as if without a care in the world. "Yep."

"You know I pissed off a lot of people in the Church during that fight, right? I mean me and Dulio really wrecked some serious shit when we fought. I think we even sunk an island or two, and this time I'm being hired by a man named Michael, same name as the seraph. One of the big honchos of the Church, just reading that name is sending alarm bells ringing in my head like there is no tomorrow." Naruto sighed in exasperation. "…you're never going to let it go, if I back away from this, right?"

"You know me better than I do."

"So I just need to go to the basilica and meet up with this Michael there?"

"Yup, then you'd just do what he wants and we'd get enough money to fund our group for a while." Replied the now grinning vampire. It was as if everything went just as planned for the magus.

Naruto didn't bother to reply but instead he turned around and started walking away from his comrade. "Though the prospect of fighting a Seraph, someone stronger than Dulio is…" There was no need to finish his sentence as the blind's eyes showed the full extent of his emotions.

Those blue eyes were full of excitement, sheer and utter joy at the prospect of fighting one of the stronger beings in this world, just another person he needed to topple on his way to the top.

If this Michael wasn't the Seraph, then he just hoped that this mission would be good enough to get his blood boiling, and if not then he was still getting paid a lot for it, and that in itself wasn't so bad. After all, becoming the strongest needed a lot of hard work, and apparently a steady flow of money.

Truly the path to being the strongest was one full of all kinds of adversities.

**-Fortis-**

**Leonardo da Vinci International Airport-Italy- Off Air Transat Flight 380**

**Present Day**

Naruto yawned as he walked upon the tarmac of the airport while stretching his body. Normally he would have exited the same way as the rest of the passengers but today he had to forgo the usual exiting procedures in lieu of planes and instead sneak out through the cargo hold of the airbus which was child's play for a shinobi like him.

Ah that was a long flight though, one that he spent silently humming and singing. Though the people were a bit strict and they tried to detain him after the flight saying something about the need to bring him to the police because of his disruptive and rude nature during the flight.

He couldn't really fault them for trying to do their jobs. Emphasis on the word trying as they easily and spectacularly failed to detain him once the plane landed, and they would forever rue the day that they tried to catch Naruto Namikaze.

That and the two guards would probably have to face the humiliation of reporting to their superiors while their hair were dyed in bright neon orange, their uniforms a bright pink, and their voices sounded like they inhaled an entire canister of Helium.

The almost limitless mundane and pranking uses of Fuinjutsu never seized to amaze Naruto, proving once more that he did the right thing by investing his time and effort in the age-old art of the Namikaze and Uzumaki.

Yes, they were useful for combat but it was always the little things it did in life that always amused him to no end. At one moment you could be creating a complex array to simultaneously ward off time, space, and weave through the very fabric of reality, or even design a seal that could summon creatures and gods from alternate realm of existences, yet at the very next moment you could be using seals to make whoopee cushions and multicolored paint bombs.

Truly an amazing and extremely flexible and adaptable art, his ancestors must be so proud of him; that is if what he read in those scrolls were even remotely true, and if it was then his ancestors were apparently nut jobs of the highest orders. Then again he was aiming to be the strongest person in the world, so a bit of that insanity may run in the blood.

"Hmm so what is the quickest way to get to the Vatican?" He asked to no one in particular as he left the tarmac where the planes were and got inside of the actual airport where he was met by a bustling sea of people who went about their daily lives.

Naruto spent a few minutes walking in the airport, slowly moving through the sea of people as he made his way towards the exit, where he was planning to get a cab to take him to the St. Peter's Basilica.

"That's him! There! The guy with the blonde hair and head set! Yes the short guy!" Naruto heard an unfamiliar voice scream from a distance. Normally he would have ignored whoever it was but the jab about his height -a respectable 5ft 7inches- prompted a near instantaneous response from the blond. The shinobi turned around and flipped the man off. "Oi I'm not short! I'm like super tall for an Asian guy!" He shouted only to spot the familiar figure of the attendant from before along with two men with orange hair talking to and directing several officers.

Some of said officers were running towards him whilst carrying pistols.

"Freeze!" Several shouts echoed in the airport causing the seas of civilians to part like the red sea and move as far as humanly possible from the blond troublemaker.

"Nah, I'd rather not, don't really like the cold that much cause of this one time where I almost got frozen to death and got an icicle shoved to my chest so I have to pass." Naruto grinned at the incoming police officers, a quick plan already forming in his mind. That would be a perfect way to cover his ass. "Then again you guys can catch me if you guys can!" The shinobi tucked his left hand in his pocket while his right hand blurred as he tossed a smoke bomb to the ground.

The sounds of gunfire soon followed the appearance of the hazy and thick smoke.

"Sayonara suckers."

The sounds of gunfire, now accompanied by panicked and hysteric screaming intensified.

"YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME ALIVE MWAHAHAHAHA!" A manic scream boomed around the airport, the sound of loud crashing and shattering soon following it, proving once more that the his ancestor's blood ran thickly through his veins.

When the smoke cleared the officers found not only a broken bullet proof window, but also the sight of a mop of blond hair flashing off the distance as the perpetrator escaped from the chaos that he created.

The officers of the airport was quick to respond and called for back up to chase after the retreating shinobi.

Thus one of the strangest manhunt in the history of Italy began.

Such was a normal occurrence for one Naruto Namikaze.

**-Fortis-**

**St. Peter's Basilica –Italy- One of the many secret rooms beneath the Basilica**

Two exorcists that were wearing white cloaks, were waiting for their superior inside a room illuminated by candles.

One of the exorcist, a girl with dark blue hair and a single fringe tinted with green tapped her feet impatiently, normally she would have been more patient and tolerant but she couldn't help herself there were too many unknown factors about this mission. Not only were they supposed to retrieve swords forged from the shards of the famed Excalibur but they were also supposed to be working with another person who will aid them in this retrieval mission.

But the question that plagued her mind to no end was why were they, users of the fragments of Excalibur being sent to retrieve the stolen fragments? Wouldn't that make them even bigger targets for the enemy? And wouldn't that put the fragments they have at risk for getting stolen as well?

The tapping of her foot slightly increased in intensity, such was her only tell, the only sign of her unease and nervousness with regards to what was shaping up to be a very dangerous mission they were being sent to.

"Mhh I wonder who were working with?" She turned her head towards her companion, another exorcist blessed with the power to use the fragments of Excalibur. A Japanese girl with long brown hair styled into twin pigtails. "I hope it's Dulio-sama!" The girl added, her eyes were shining brightly like stars in the night skies. "I've never met him before but I heard that he was cool, easy-going, and strong."

"He is definitely strong." She folded her hands underneath her bosom." After all he is the only exorcist of the church that is allowed to hunt down High Class and even at times Ultimate Class Devils." Yes working with Dulio had its merits but it also had various down sides, the fact that the strongest exorcist was quite whimsical when it came to tasting a new dish could potentially screw up their mission all together. Though with him working with them, they'd not only have an easier chance of retrieving the Excaliburs but also a better chance of actually coming out of this whole mission alive.

"Yes." She nodded in agreement to her friend's guess in their most likely companion. "I do hope we work with Dulio. That would at least make the success rate of this mission to around ninety percent."

"Huh?" The violet eyes of the brown-haired exorcist blinked a few times before they zoned into the blue haired exorcist in confusion. "I thought it would be a hundred percent with him working with us."

"The ten percent is for unknown factors, and trust me when I tell you that my gut is telling me that there is definitely more to this mission then meets the eye." Her fellow exorcist responded coolly.

"What your gut is telling you?" The Japanese exorcist tilted her head to the side, a show of confusion. "Are you hungry again Xenovia-chan? Did you like forget to eat again?"

"No- what I meant to say was... you know what never mind, Irina." The blue haired Xenovia found her stomach suddenly grumbling and betraying her much to her hidden embarrassment. "On second thought I might be a bit famished."

"I knew it! Let's grab something to eat after this. We can even get Dulio-sama to come along with us!" Irina proclaimed energetically whilst gesturing her hands rather frantically.

Xenovia stared at her blankly. "We're not even sure if it's Dulio who will assist us in retrieving those swords, so don't get your hopes up. For all we know they might send one of those old exorcists that will most likely serve as cannon fodder. You know those short ones who are basically useless."

"Oh those really short ones, old short exorcists. I've actually seen a few of them around."

"Oi who are you calling old, short, and an exorcist? I'd like you to know that in no ways am I old, nor short I'm like awesomely tall, but I am also not affiliated in anyways with the church so I'm not an exorcist! And lastly I'm not useless, I'm super awesome and kick ass!"

The two of them exorcists moved their heads mechanically towards the direction of the voice. They were lucky that the hood of their cloaks were up thus hiding the visible look of shock in their faces. There in front of the wooden doors that neither of them noticed opening was a youth probably a year or two older than them, his hand was pointing at Irina, shaking in what appeared to be barely restrained comical fury.

Again they didn't even notice that he had entered the room at any point during their conversation, and both of them were trained to be extremely aware of their environment.

It only took her a second to realize that this blond haired teen with icy blue eyes was probably the person who they were going to be working with. Though despite the young man's apparent skill in stealth Xenovia couldn't help but judge the blond based on the words that came out of his mouth. Most people often say that first impressions tended to last, and it that scant second a single word summarized Xenovia's entire opinion of the blond.

"Idiot."

She didn't even realize that she opened her mouth and actually said it to the young man's face.

**-Fortis-**

**St. Peter's Basilica- Italy- Vestibule**

**Half an hour earlier.**

"Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" Those two words were shouted with a shit eating grin on the Namikaze's face as he quickly ran towards Saint Peter's basilica, with several police men and cars that were hot on his tail.

"Sanctuary!" He jumped over two guards that stood near the gates of basilica. His body twisted in the air before he landed feet first inside the church much like an acrobat with his hands both extended outwards his legs apart, body slightly arced, his head sets hanging freely on his neck. If there was a panel of judges they would have without a doubt given him a perfect score of ten for his flawless execution.

He stayed like that for no less than three seconds before he realized that he was still being chased. At that point he quickly broke his pose and ran towards the altar of the basilica- where a certain man with blond hair stood-, all the while screaming from the top of his lungs. "I claim sanctuary to the Holy Church! Please followers of the almighty Yeezus, save me from the grave injustice from these people that assail me so! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"

"Such a strange young man." A handsome looking man with long blond hair and bright green eyes that looked perpetually sad asked as he stared at his fellow blond who was quickly running towards him. "Must you act like this?"

"You mean awesome?" Naruto stopped just a few steps in front of the green-eyed man, no this was not a man, but rather one of those beings that wore the skin of man, and unlike devils this one radiated waves upon waves of blindingly warm and radiant holy aura.

It didn't even take Naruto a second to realize that this person was his contractor Michael, and this person was the real deal.

A real seraph.

Naruto barely stopped himself from grinning like a loon in front of the angel, the prospect of such an epic battle already flowing through his mind.

"More along the lines of troublesome and insane, really but I guess in your case and the case of your group those are two words and awesome are simply the same." The man countered, his voice soft and gentle but also powerful.

"You're just jealous of all our adventures." Naruto replied quickly while his mind was already working on creating several scenarios and plans to deal with the Seraph if-when, he fights against one of the strongest angels from the bible.

"You mean those dangerous life and death adventures that resulted in you coming to me, a member of the **[Church Faction] **of the **[Biblical Faction] **for a job because your group apparently ran out of money?"

"Yeah we've already established that we were in the red, piss as poor. Big whoop, wanna fight about it or are we going to get to the actually giving of the mission and such." Naruto was half serious about the fighting deal but he already knew that the angel wouldn't risk getting in a fight that would not only could kill a lot of mundane followers of the church but would also most likely cause the destruction of one of their factions' famous holy site.

St. Peter's Basilica in ruins; the blond could already see the international shit storm on the headlines of the night news, they'd probably blame it on some kind of freakish gas leak. It was a weird excuse but that's just how the church rolled at times.

Michael shook his head while a small smile appeared on his face. "You are really just as rude as I heard you were."

"Nah I'm not rude, this is just how I came to be. Pre-made with a guarantee back policy if you don't get the mouth and the attitude with every model. "

"Please don't even insinuate that there is more than one of you that is not one of your clone techniques that Dulio spoke of. I'm not sure the world could survive the presence of two Naruto Namikazes."

"We'd destroy it through our sheer awesomeness."

"Yes, let's go with that." Michael let out a small chuckle. "Though I think you're forgetting about something."

"If I forgot about it then it was probably something that wasn't important." Naruto quickly waved off the seraph's concerns.

"Oh, I can assure you this one holds some semblance of importance." Michael said with a hint of amusement as his eyes lingered at something, rather some people coming from behind the shinobi.

"STEP AWAY FROM THE PRIEST AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" Several shouts erupted from the basilica as several armed officers went through the gates of the sacred ground guns and weapons a blazing, not even caring for the laws of the church.

"Oh yeah..." Naruto took one look at the armed men before he shifted his gaze towards Michael. "...Um Sanctuary?" He asked.

"I am sorry but we only offer that to those that believe in the lord our creator, not as you said the almighty Yeebuz." There was a hint of smugness and satisfaction behind those words.

"You know for an angel you could be a dick at times."

"Word of advice you might want to duck."

"Duc-?"

Before the words could even fully leave his mouth, the blond shinobi found himself tackled and dog piled to the ground by no less than ten officers.

"Umm... a little help here... I really don't want to have to seriously hurt somebody."

"What's the magic word?"

"Sanctuary?"

"No try again."

"Placebo?"

The green-eyed man simply stared blankly at the shinobi.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Okay fine, please oh powerful and almighty Michael show this unrepentant sinner the error of his ways so that he may free himself from the shackles thrown to him by mortal men."

"Guards you may let him go, I have this situation under control." The officers spared Michael one glance before they were hit with what was most likely a compulsion spell making them seize their actions and immediately get off the blond. The group of officers then did a turn and silently left the church all the while looking as if they were zombies. "See was that so hard?" The seraph asked as he turned his attention to his fellow blond who was already up and in the midst of dusting his clothes. "Now if you wouldn't mind, please follow me so we can have our conversation in a more secure place." The angel said as he turned towards one of the many doors inside the basilica and started walking towards that direction.

"I repeat what I said earlier, for an angel you could be a real dick at time." Naruto grumbled loudly as he followed the angel.

"Oh?" The seraph raised a single eye brow, as he turned his head towards the last Namikaze, it was only for a moment but his normally sad-looking eyes shined in amusement. "You do need to realize that I basically grew up, and have known the Governor of Fallen Angels and Leader of **[Grigori]** Azazel since way, way, way back."

That stopped Naruto on his tracks, his footsteps coming to a complete halt as he spent a few seconds actually staring at the back of Michael. "...That actually explains a lot."

**-Fortis-**

**St. Peter's Basilica-Italy-Inner Sanctum**

"That was really devious from your part Naruto-san." The angel suddenly said as the survivor of the elemental massacre caught up to him.

Naruto for his part simply placed his hands behind his head and tilted his head to the side while walking beside the angel in a sedate pace. "Hm? What are you talking about?"

Michael gave Naruto an appraising look. "You purposely caused chaos in the nearest airport and gathered a crowd of police officers to go after you in order to cover your tail and protect yourself from the more unsavory members of the church that would have been after you since your fight with Dulio. In essence, you got members of the mundane world involved and caused them to unwillingly protect you from the members of our world, to keep us or rather some of the more extremist exorcist in check, less they want to reveal themselves and our faction to the eyes of the mundane."

"Mah mah you give me too much credit. I was just being myself and attracted trouble as usual." For a moment Michael could have sworn he saw a cold and calculating glint pass by the shinobi's eyes. It was only there for a second but it was enough to confirm the seraph's suspicions. There was indeed a method in the blond's madness.

"It wasn't as if I was purposely using what many consider cannon fodder in order to block out Exorcist's from attacking me. After all that would be really, and I mean really mean. Not really a heroic act from an upstanding citizen of the world such as me." Naruto quipped, his response unknowingly causing Michael to smile.

"Such a frightening mind you have hidden beneath a façade of energetic foolishness."

"Hahaha let's stop talking about me, you're like making me blush and all." Naruto scratched the back of his head, messy blond tresses tangling around his fingers. "So let's just get straight to the point, no use dilly dallying around and all. What's this mission about? The details I got were extremely vague, they just said I needed to get some swords to get some cash, and if it wasn't already clear by now I'm in dire need for cash so as long as it doesn't involve taking down a God or a Dragon cause it'll be too troublesome then you can say that I'm in -ttebayo."

"Hmm, fair enough." The angel replied as he quickly closed his eyes to organize his thoughts before opening them a few seconds later. "Several important swords were stolen from various churches across the world. Normally this wouldn't have been a serious issue, and we would have sent our Exorcists to remedy the situation, but in this case it's because of the nature of the swords, and that they were taken in a span of a few days, is what worries me."

"So what's so important about those swords?" Naruto asked listening ever so intently at the seraph's words. He learned the hard way that it was not wise to go into a mission without knowing the full details. Any half-baked professional would know that in some situations having the right information would greatly contribute to not only the success of the mission, but also increased the chances of survival to a staggering rate.

"Excalibur. The swords that were stolen were all reformed from the fragments of one of the four Holy Swords that God himself created. Excaliburs Rapidly, Nightmare, and Transparency, three of the seven were already stolen."

Naruto let out an impressed whistle, he'd have to live under a rock to not know about Excalibur. "Wow someone actually had the balls to try to steal those things?" He asked honestly impressed that someone was stealing pieces of what was widely considered among the strongest of holy swords in existence.

"Yes and that leads to another problem. From the information that I've gathered through my own sources and personal investigation, the most likely suspect for the theft is a or a group of Fallen Angels, one of which a high-ranking member of **[Grigori]** no doubt."

"And what makes you think **[Grigori]** has a hand in this?"

"Whoever stole the swords by-passed and cracked through the defences and wards which were erected by one of my fellow Seraphs. This defenses were made of holy energies and was meant to stop and destroy anyone of none angel persuasion from taking the swords, but it seems that someone had a strong enough holy power to get through the defenses, and you should know aside from angels there is only one other faction who wields powers similar to our own. Though the various eye-witness accounts of blurry images of beings with black wings holding one of the swords while heading towards Japan and the black feathers found on the scene also helped me come to that conclusion."

"Hmm I haven't really talked to the Super Pervert in a while but..." Naruto scratched the back of his head while his forehead was scrunched up in confusion. "This doesn't sound like something he'd do. It's not just in his M.O. since this is swords were talking about albeit shards of the famous Excalibur but in the end Azazel has more interest in playing with Sacred Gears then actually going around stealing swords around the world…" His free hand cupped his chin. "Though an act like this, a blatant theft and what can be considered a direct attack on the church could basically start a war. Yeah this could definitely break that non-aggression pact you guys have going on."

For a moment the warmth and kindness shinobi's eyes vanished as it was replaced by a cold and calculating glint that the angel had a chance to glimpse at before. "Excalibur shards... **[Grigori]**... Japan..." His eyes widened in realization. "Whoever they are they plan to forge the Excalibur, from its pieces and with it they plan on doing something really stupid like…" His mind considered the high priority targets that resided in Japan, quickly narrowing the list into three specific people. "Using it to kill the leader of the **[Youkai]** who are currently allied with the **[Kamis]** thus starting a war between the **[Kamis of Japan]**, **[Youkai]**, and the **[The Biblical Faction]**, or they could use the strongest holy sword to target the relatives of the **[Satans]** which currently resides in Japan…"

Either way it would lead to war, a war that would take the lives of many humans much like the events that happened in his old home, and it was something which Naruto wanted to avoid at all cost.

Talk about additional incentives to take and complete this mission.

Shit just got serious.

Michael was looking at Naruto intently. "The alliance between the **[Youkai]** and the **[Kami]**'s is basically common knowledge to people who live in our part of the world, but the later one, the information about the presence of those two devil's in Japan is a secret that only a handful knows about. That leads me to wonder, how exactly are you privy with the information, Naruto-san?"

"Knowing is half the battle, information is power and for someone whose aiming to be the strongest in the world such things are necessary."

"That didn't really answer my question."

"Hm? Well the other half of battle is killing or beating the crap out of your enemy, but from the look you're giving me I'm guessing that's not what you wanted to know, but if you really want to know the guy who gave me the information was the same prick you grew up with."

"That… actually explains a lot." Michael stared accusingly at Naruto. "And from what I've gathered you worked for **[Grigori] **at times."

"Hey a guy leading a super awesome group has to earn his keep somehow, and doing jobs for any of the big wings factions out there is a really good way of making money. You should see what Odin pays when he wants something done. Heck he even tried paying me with one of his **[Valkyries]** but sadly I had to refuse since that one was moody and was a really piss poor drunk."

A small chuckle escaped the seraph's lips. "As entertaining as it is to talk about the various eccentricities of some of the Gods out there I really do think that we may have gone way off topic."

"Hai hai…" Naruto let the hand cupping his chin drop to his pockets. "…Either way whoever is behind this thing wants to start a war but no not with the **[Youkai] **or **[Kami]**, the person planning all this is hoping to reignite a war between the three factions." Naruto closed his eyes and let his mind work its magic as he recalled all the members of **[Grigori] **that he encountered during his tenure of working with the group.

His mind quickly narrowed it down to one name.

He opened his eyes which still held no warmth in them. "The person... most vocal about waging war once more, and is also a part of **[Grigori]**... It can only be that guy." He only met the **[Fallen Angel]** in passing after completing a job for Azazel, but that one that reeked of violence and blood lust, a being that sought out battle, one that thirsted for war.

"Kokabiel is behind this isn't he?"

"It appears that we have come to the same conclusion." Michael clasped his hands behind the small of his back."…and I'm afraid you hit the nail right on the proverbial coffin."

"Hmm... Kokabiel huh... that guy's pretty strong right?" Naruto grinned as he got a small nod from Michael in response to his question. "Yeah, I accept this mission. You don't even need to pay me extra for going against Kokabiel, the price for the retrieval of those swords is a good enough payment for me."

"That's good to hear, it seems the stories of your bravery were not exaggerated to say the least, but are you truly confident that you could take him on? After all a human would always be at a disadvantage when up against beings like us."

"Heh, story of my life." Naruto shook his head. "If I gave up every time I found myself at a disadvantage then I would probably dead several times over, and to be honest I think you guys have it all screwed up."

"What do you mean?"

"In my opinion, beings like you, should actually fear humans." There was a certain edge and steel in the blond's voice that actually had Michael of all beings blink a few times.

"Oh my, that is such a bold proclamation. Would you kindly share the reasoning behind those words?" It came off as an intrigued question but in that case it was not, was not even a request, but rather an order from a being who stood close to the top of the world.

"Potential." Naruto answered back flippantly, but the edge was still there, a very dangerous edge. "We are stubborn, we move forwards despite all the hardships and shit you guys throw at us; we continue to grow and move one while you and others like you stagnate as you sit on your laurels, and when we reach the pinnacle of our strength, we find ourselves standing by your sides as equals, or even possessing power to slay those who stood above you, the Gods themselves can fall to the hands of mortal men. You mythological beings fear us and our potential. That's why you guys hunt us down, turn us to your sides, or flat-out kill us in order to hinder us. You fear of what we could become."

A silent and tense atmosphere surrounded that the two as they continued walking down a set of stairs and making their way down a hallway illuminated by candle and torch-light beneath the inner sanctum of the church.

"You are a very strange man Naruto-san, a very strange, and dangerous man." Michael said, finally breaking the silence and as he looked at the man he hired to retrieve the swords in an another new but rather dangerous and ominous light.

The silence was broken but the tension remained.

"Meh I've been called a lot of things." Naruto grinned at the angel, finally doing his part to break the tension. "By the way am I supposed to be working alone?"

Before the Seraph could even respond a soft baritone voice permeated out of a nearby wooden door. "We're not even sure if it's Dulio who will assist us in retrieving those swords, so don't get your hopes up. For all we know they might send one of those old exorcists that will most likely serve as cannon fodder. You know those short ones who are basically useless."

"Oh those really short ones, old short exorcists. I've actually seen a few of them around." Another voice came from the door, this one more feminine and higher pitched than the previous one.

Naruto froze as he stopped and stared at the door. "Did someone just call me old and short?"

Michael chuckled lightly, his eyes slightly closed. "Well I guess that answers your question Namikaze-san. You are going to be working wit-" He opened his eyes only to find that his companion was nowhere in sight, and that the door leading to the room was now open.

"Oi who are you calling old, short, and an exorcist? I'd like you to know that in no ways am I old, nor short I'm like awesomely tall, but I am also not affiliated in anyways with the church so I'm not an exorcist! And lastly I'm not useless, I'm super awesome and kick ass!" Naruto's shout came from beyond the wooden door.

"Idiot." The flat voice of the unmistakable baritone from before echoed from the room.

Michael couldn't help but let out a few more chuckles as he walked through the door, his previous conversation with Naruto was promptly deposited -but never forgotten- in the back of his mind.

"Such a strange young man."

**-Fortis-**

**St. Peter's Basilica –Italy- One of the many secret rooms beneath the Basilica**

**Present Time**

Michael was still smiling as he stood by the side of the room, against a wall, and introduced his two exorcists to their partner for this missions, who was still standing close to the door. None of them really looked too enthralled to work with the other. "Xenovia-san, Irina-san, this person here is Naruto-san, as you can see he is not Dulio, and the two of you are going to be going to Japan with him to retrieve the stolen pieces of Excalibur. Let's not forget that there's also a chance that you'll fight a really strong Fallen Angel, so good luck with that."

And then there was silence.

Second passed by…

And then…

Minutes passed by…

And then…

Naruto shrugged not really caring about Michael introduction or the fact that he was called an idiot by those two strangers. "Zup?"

And just like that the flood gates seemed to have opened up.

Xenovia was the first to speak after the seemingly uncaring shinobi."With all due respect Michael-sama, this man." She has spent the last few minutes carefully studying the blond and for all of her observational skill she couldn't really find anything special about the person she mentally dubbed as "idiot." He was even slouched and looked unusually bored during the minutes that dwindled by "He doesn't look like he could help out that much and quite honestly…" She decided to throw in her own opinion. "…he looks a bit flaky"

"Yeah he does look a bit flaky, he's on the short side to. I really hoped that it was Dulio-sama who was going with us today but it seems that heavens didn't answer my prayers." Irina added her two cents in the conversation, not even noticing that the blond suddenly looked all the more serious and twitched violently upon hearing the words flaky and short.

"Indeed." Xenovia nodded as she glanced towards Irina. "He doesn't even look as if he could put up a fight. He looks slouched and appears to lack of any semblance of a stance or any sort of combat presence for battle. He neither possesses a great amount of magical power of some kind like mages, or even the normally noticeable power that radiates from a Sacred Gear."

Irina kept nodding along Xenovia. "Yup he looks pretty we-"

Michael's eyes were already slowly widening as he perceived the next words that was about to come out of the exorcist's mouth. He has heard tales of it of course, some even came from his most trusted exorcist Dulio, that there was one word that no one was supposed to use to describe Naruto. A simple four letter word that he was sure would cause all hell to break loose once she finished her sentence.

"-ak."

"Yes, though I am not one who often judge people by their appearance he doesn't really present himself as someone who would be helpful to this mission." Xenovia added unknowingly adding more fuel to the fire.

Michael actually looked a bit worried, his head turning towards the suddenly quiet Naruto, whose eyes were being shadowed by his hair. Gone was the blond's previously relaxed posture, as he was now standing straight, ready to react at a moment's notice. He really should have debriefed the girl's about Naruto before this meeting, but alas even an angel such as he could make mistakes and be forgetful at times.

"Weak huh?" Those word came out as cold as ice and it felt as if the temperature of the room dropped down a few degrees, the seemingly none existent power that Xenovia remarked about a few seconds ago was flooding the room in small yet violent waves to the point that the candles lighting up the room were flickering on and off. "Would you guys care for a demonstration? A quick spar if you don't mind just to show you two..." Naruto cracked his knuckles, if there were only a few things in this world that he truly hated in the world it was being called weak. "…How weak, I truly am."

Michael figured that this was the perfect time to interject and prevent this situation from escalating any further. "Now now let's not be hast-"

"I accept." Xenovia said with a hint of excitement as she stared at the blond. She'd have to be blind or total pants at sensing her opponents if she didn't notice the sudden change in Naruto. She didn't really know what it was about the sudden change but something about it excited her, it called to the warrior inside her. There was more to this teen than meets the eye. For some reason she wanted to fight, to go against the blond and pit her own strength against him. If that wasn't enough she also wanted to gauge this Naruto's capabilities so that she and Irina may work with this man to the best of their abilities. After all she quickly realized that Michael wouldn't just bring in some weak riffraff to retrieve what were basically considered sacred treasures to the church.

Irina cheerfully nodded her head along. "We promise were going to hold back, we won't kick your butt th-"

Whatever promises she tried to say were suddenly cut off when the hood of her cloak was pulled down causing her head to jerk downwards. She wasn't even fully aware of what was happening until she felt and intense pain blooming from her stomach. Looking down she found a fist buried deep beneath her gut. A fist belonging to the guy named Naruto who apparently teleported from across the room in an instant.

That was a good ten meters between them, and she didn't even see him move.

The fist that was planted on Irina's gut blurred the fist drizzled around her body nailing her several times across the torso much like the pitter-patter of the rain, each blow was accompanied by a feeling of intense pain, to the point that despite her training Irina found herself quickly giving into the blows and losing consciousness, dropping unceremoniously on the ground.

The battle between the two was over before it even started.

Naruto reappeared in his earlier position right in front of the door as if he didn't even move at all, but unlike before his hands were now crossed against his chest, while his cold blue eyes stared dispassionately at the crumpled form of Irina. If he said 'Hn', he would without a doubt have given an impression worthy of a certain enemy of his ancestor.

Not even a second later Xenovia charged in without hesitation, her hand extended to her side as she pulled out a sword wrapped in bandages from beneath her cloak -which she tossed aside to reveal a skin tight black unitard beneath it. The bandages that covered the blade was quickly discarded to show a two-handed sword with an axe like guard and a long blade with three points in the end. It was one of the seven swords forged from the fragments of the broken Excalibur, the piece which represented a portion of the original blade' power.

The power to destroy, the holy sword of destruction, Excalibur Destruction.

With but a swing of her blade she unleashed a blast of pure, and destructive power in the form of a fierce blasting wave of both force and wind that would have sent any normal men or devil flying away with the most severe of injuries.

The sword proved to be worthy of its titles as the blast released from the blade easily destroyed, the wooden door leading to the room causing it to explode into splinter while a good part of the wall beside the door was also reduced rubble momentarily covering the room in a shroud of grey dust.

Such a fearsome attack…

When the dust settled the shinobi was still standing in front of the now broken door and wall,a small grin now present on his face. All the while his left hand was balled into a fist and extended forward, it was as if he effortlessly batted and deflected the attack away.

…that came nowhere close to actually hurting her target.

Letting her battle instincts take over for her Xenovia charged in once more closing the distance between her and the blond in less than a second, her instincts telling her too keep attacking until she overwhelmed her foe, such was her usual approach to combat; attack, attack, attack, until you beat the enemy, and that worked most of the time…

This time she held her sword with both hands as she swung it fiercely several dozen times, her hands were literally a blur as she aimed to cause bodily harm towards the blond. The large silver blade repeatedly flashed around the room creating the impression of several silver crescent moons, sailing through the dark room like night sky, all of which were bathed in the power of Excalibur Destruction, sheering and battering through the very path they took. There was no technique in this blow, just several violent swings that were released over and over again.

…but for some reason, why did her gut -no her instinct- tell her that it wasn't going to work this time around.

Her instinct appeared to be spot on when not a single one of her attacks landed on her opponent, as his body appeared to have quickly swayed from side to side, an almost effortless act that he used to evade all of her blows.

Xenovia didn't even have the time to act surprised when she was forced to raise her sword up and hold it against her body to defend herself from a flurry of punches that cause sparks to fly out of her blade. Each of those blows were certainly debilitating and it carried enough force to send her skidding back, away from her opponent. She then had to duck to avoid a kick to the head, roll to the side to avoid a follow up axe kick, and when she tried to counter attack she found herself hitting nothing but an after image, with the real blond suddenly reappearing from the place where he originally stood.

He didn't even look winded, while she was already sweating, her hands slightly numbed due to the sheer force of those punches.

It was then that it suddenly came to her like an epiphany, as she recalled a rumor she heard and dismissed a few months ago.

There was a story around the church, and almost everyone was talking about it. It was the story of a young man with icy blue eyes and a head of spiky blond hair who had an argument with Dulio Gesualdo over a bowl of Ramen of all things, an argument that led to the exchanging blows, a battle which resulted in not only the destruction of a small uninhabited island but also the defeat of the strongest exorcist of the church, at the hands of a seemingly unknown person.

It was such an absurd story that she and Irina decided to ignore it.

Based on the descriptions from the story it was easy to her to connect the dots. She was fighting against the person who defeated Dulio Gesualdo, an exorcist known for casually taking out High Class Devils and even some Ultimate Class Devils. This man was on par with Dulio, which meant the two of them were in a different class all together, one that was beyond Irina and her own.

She had it all wrong, he wasn't called here by Michael-sama to aid them; the two of them were called here to assist him. "I unknowingly walked into an unbeatable battle. I never stood a chance in the first place, didn't I?" Xenovia asked as she kept the blade of her Excalibur up, her hands still slightly shaking.

"No you didn't." Naruto quickly admitted his tone showing no emotions. "So are you going to give up?"

"I could but, I won't. I would not forgive myself if I give up so easily without giving it my all." She tightened her grip on the fragment of Excalibur as she slightly buckled her knees and readied herself to attack. "Even when I face an insurmountable opponent I will not give up, I will break through them with my power and the power of my blade. I will bring down judgement upon my foes with my own hand. In the name of God."

"Yare yare… what a stubborn girl, you called me an Idiot so I guess in return I'll call you a Power Idiot." For a moment all the coldness vanished from the blond's eyes as a kind warmth radiated from them. "I could honestly say that I like stubborn people like you, those that don't give up so easily. It also doesn't hurt the your pretty good, but I've met some really great swordsmen during my travels. You still need some improvement on your technique before you play in the big leagues." The warmth vanished as a familiar coldness reappeared. "Now give me your best shot so I can show you a fraction of the power of a human who dreams of becoming the strongest."

Xenovia took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, this was unlike any battle she had ever fought. It was a first for her, a battle in which she was so out-classed that it wasn't even funny, and she had faced some strong High Class Devils before, and then again this was no devil. She was up against a full-bodied human, one made of flesh of bone like her.

Who knew humans could be this strong?

She internally shook his head as she put those other thoughts aside, for now the only thing that mattered was giving it her all in one last attack and hoping to God that it would be enough to at least knock her opponent out.

Xenovia tightened her hold on her blade, her legs slightly buckled down as she shifted her center of gravity, making her body slightly lean towards the unmoving blond. She then kicked off the ground, dust flying about on her wake as she raised her sword up to the sky, its tip pointing towards the heavens and without hesitation put all of her power in the blade as she brought the sword down towards the man who went toe to toe with the church's strongest exorcist.

Naruto moved as the holy sword descended, he slightly spun around and in a small arc brought his leg up as he channeled chakra along the limb before he kicked towards the sword. A loud whooshing sound accompanied the motion as his leg shot towards the sword like a bullet.

Steel clashed against flesh and cloth…

The fire in the candles that light up the room flickered violently and were eventually extinguished by the force produced by the two attacks. All the while Michael stood by the side away from the battle, his face was promptly resting against the palm of his hand. "Wasn't fast enough to stop this all from happening… was too curious about his abilities so I allowed it to continue… Naruto-san got too carried away… stupid Michael… stupid stupid Michael." The Seraph whispered to himself as the battle between Naruto and Xenovia reached its inevitable conclusion.

… And against all odds the steel failed to cut through the flesh and cloth.

Through chakra accompanied by sheer physical force, Naruto Namikaze's kick was strong enough to actually stop Excalibur Destruction.

The look of surprise that appeared on Xenovia's face said it all. "H-how?"

For a second a flash of amusement appeared in the midst the dangerous glint in the blond shinobi's eyes. "As much as I want to say Fuck you that's how. I'd stick to the more polite alternative and simply say that it's a secret. Now it's my turn, don't blink or else you'll miss it." He warned as he kicked against the blade and took a few steps back slightly distancing himself from the swordswoman.

Xenovia was instantly on guard but with two steps Naruto ended the battle.

The first step allowed Naruto's body moved like a flowing river weaving his way around Excalibur Destruction and easily making his way underneath Xenovia's guard and from there it was easy to land a blow. The second step allowed him to firmly plant himself on the ground which cracked underneath his step, and so Naruto with his legs apart and slightly bending on his knees, delivered a chakra enhanced dual palm strike that nailed Xenovia at both the middle of her chest in between her breast and her stomach.

She was falling backwards before she even realized it.

"I am not weak."

Xenovia heard him as she fell, and she honestly believed him, she was a fool to call him weak. It was a quick assumption that she should not have made, with a loud thud her back crashed against the floor.

If this was the type of person she was going to work with, then she will have to thank god for his small mercies. With a person like this on their side, there was higher chance of them coming back alive, and that was all that mattered in the end. It made even getting her ass handed to her worth it.

"No, you're not." She whispered back, a small smile on her face as the darkness started creeping around her, dragging her to the realm of the unconsciousness.

Though the last thing Xenovia saw before she welcomed the darkness was a pair of powerful blue eyes that were gently staring down at her.

She had to admit it wasn't such a bad sight to faint to.

**-Fortis-**

Xenovia felt warm, not feverish warm of fiery hot, it felt just right. It was as if she was covered in a gentle and protective blanket which covered her from head to toe, as a unique warmth flowed and moved throughout her body- yet it did not feel invasive.

It felt incredibly comfortable –like a warm and surging heat coursing through her veins.

It felt so good -unlike anything she had ever felt before.

It felt invigorating -there was no pain or any form of injuries or maladies that were assailing her body.

It just felt right.

A pair of brown eyes slowly opened briefly taking in a blurry image of a golden coloured light which radiated from a person standing- or was it sitting or kneeling- close to her.

Xenovia narrowed her eyes in confusion as a groan escaped her lips. "What happened?" She asked the still blurry vision of the person near her.

"I kinda happened." The reply was both sheepish and apologetic at the same time. "I'm really sorry about that, I've had a long week and was looking for something to vent my frustrations out of. I didn't really mean to snap at you two. So yeah, again I'm sorry." The blond shinobi said guilt weighing heavily upon his tone.

That was not one of his proudest moments to say the least.

The blue haired holy sword user focused her eye at the speaker, she could see the spiky and messy mop of blond hair, but it wasn't until she saw his eyes -those familiar blue eyes- that the befuddling fog that plagued her mind decided to lift itself, and then unbidden memories came at her like a sledgehammer, crashing against her mind and causing her to release another pained groan.

"Did I call you weak and accepted your challenge for a spar or did I just dream that?"

"That happened a good thirty minutes ago, again I apologize for the lack of conduct in my part. I really am sorry about it dattebayo."

"Remind me to never utter the W-word while you're around." Xenovia tried to get up, emphasis on try as she immediately placed her hands to her stomach clutching it as she felt the after effects of their battle, if it could even be called one. "You really don't pull your punches."

He moved to aid her, his hands that which were covered in a majestic golden hue was placed a top her stomach, and just like that the pain suddenly faded away. "Hey I got the feeling you wanted to get a feel of how strong I am so I decided to give my punches an extra wallop, and damn what a wallop I gave you."

"Yes and I appreciate that wallop that you gave me." She replied flatly as she took in the warmth the radiated from the mystical golden energy that came from the blond's hands. "By the way, what is this?" She asked, her eyes firmly set upon his glowing hands.

"Hm? Oh you mean this? Just a little something to help you heal up. You can say it's one of my super awesome mega ultra-super powers."

"You said super twice."

"It's that good."

"I see. Well it feels… nice."

"Good, then that means it's working." Naruto said with a hint of pride accompanied by a small smile on his face as he healed Xenovia of her injuries. "I'm really sorry about the beating again." He apologized once more.

"It's no problem, truth be told part of the blame lies with Irina and I, speaking of which where is Irina?" She looked around the room briefly taking note that it was still in ruin and that the other two people present in the room before were nowhere to be found.

"After I healed her she left the room to sulk somewhere, I think she also said something about needing to pray to God to get stronger, and that she needed more discipline so that she wouldn't be caught off guard so easily next time she fought."

"… and where's Michael-sama?"

"Oh him? The guy bailed on us, told me to get going once you were up, and said he had something to do, didn't really ask what it was and didn't really particularly cared so meh."

Silence soon descended upon the two as Naruto used his Yang chakra to heal Xenovia, normally it wouldn't really have taken so long but apparently his last attack did some real damage to the swordswoman's body.

"I meant what I said you know."

"What do you mean?"

"You're really good with a sword, likes to fight, really strong and stubborn to boot. Yep, can help but say I like people like you. I would really look forward to the day when you get stronger so the two of us can fight again."

As the saying went, birds of the same feathers flocked together.

Xenovia stared at the blond for a moment before deciding to avert her gaze, redirecting it towards her blade. "I still have a long way to go before that happens."

"Just try to keep in mind what I told you during our fight. Work on your speed and technique, as well as work on trying not to just use brute force to solve your problems, cause as I just demonstrated to you there are people out there who will definitely pack a meaner punch than you. The trick is to use your mind to fuck with them and then beat them to the ground after wards."

"Yes, you were very thorough on your impromptu demonstration, or would you prefer venting sessions?"

"Already said I'm sorry about that, my bad." Naruto moved his right hand towards the girl's chest while his left hand scratched the back of his head. "Just don't do that, I hate it when others call me weak. It just rubs me off a wrong way and I mean a really wrong way."

After all the last person who called him weak had the gall to destroy and ransack not only his childhood home but also the entire island where it stood.

He still eagerly dreamed of kicking that okama's ass while repeatedly shouting 'who's weak now?' to the devil's face.

"You're a very strange person."

"I know, been told that to my face several times in the past. Michael even told me I was strange as well. Not that I care, that just means I'm super awesome and people are jealous of my swag."

Xenovia didn't actually know how to respond to that one, so she decided to ignore the sentence all together. "So what do you think are our chances with this mission? With just Irina and I my first assumptions were that we had more than a fifty percent chance of retrieving those swords, but upon hearing the possible involvement of Fallen Angels then I'm afraid that number has drastically gone down."

"Don't worry, with me there we'll have a success rate of two hundred percent."

"...How can you be so confident?"

"Because if we fail we'd die, and I'd rather not die cause then I would have people trying to resurrect me and then kill me again for dying in the first place. So as long as you, I, and that Irina girl work together we can probably pull this one off. That and this isn't my really first rodeo when it comes to situations like these cowgirl."

Xenovia blinked as she tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Rodeo? Cowgirl?"

"…Oh yeah tend to forget that people raised by the church were a bit on the duller side when it came to making snarky comments and references best to remember that if were working together on this mission." Naruto grumbled mostly to himself as he finally applied the vanish touches into healing Xenovia, mainly going over her chest several times to heal any damages there before moving his hand quickly away before the bluenette could unleash a lot of righteous female fry at him for what could easily be perceived as a perverted act.

"To retrieve the stolen Excaliburs that are now hidden in Japan, and please don't touch my breasts again without permission."

"Hehe sorry about that, they were rather firm and nice, so good for you." Naruto slightly dipped his head in apology though his eyes shined in mischief. Wow he's already apologized more times in this conversation than the entirety of last year. Who knew he had it in him to do that? "How are we going to Japan, anyways?" He asked trying to veer the conversation to one that would lead him to the least bodily harm.

"We're going to take a plane."

"Like a private one owned by the church?"

"Knowing Michael-san then were are most likely taking the economy class flight in the nearest airport."

"Wow that sounds surprisingly cheap."

"Well it would be fine, we of the church do not like to splurge money when not needed."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, the church was paying him a lot so they probably needed to cut back on some stuff. Speaking of airports."Hmm you know I feel like I'm forgetting something but if I'm forgetting it then it must not be that important." With a small grin he slowly stood up from his spot beside Xenovia. "So now you're all healed and ready to go. Now chop, chop, get up and, let's find Irina so not only can we get those swords back but also get enough cash to get my finances in order."

"Finances?"

"One of my Greatest Enemies."

**-Fortis-**

**Leonardo da Vinci International Airport-Italy- Main Terminal**

"You truly are a strange one Namikaze." Xenovia commented offhandedly as she watched the ensuing chaos unfold.

"We'll see you in the flight okay? Just don't be late." A grinning Irina chirped from behind Xenovia. In her mind God has already answered her prayers and has given the blond his just desserts.

"Oi don't tell me you two are going two are just going to leave me here?" Naruto complained as he watched the two Excalibur users quickly distance themselves from him. "What about all that team work and camaraderie stuff? Wait is it because I kicked your cute assess? It's gotta be because I kicked your asses."

They ignored him, but small glimpse he caught from Xenovia's eyes showed him full well that this was a form of payback for the unholy beat down that he instilled upon the two exorcists.

Naruto looked up in the sky as he folded his hands behind his head. "Oh karma you sadistic bitch." He couldn't help but curse at the sight of no less than several dozen police officers, soldiers, and security men off all kinds surrounding him in a perimeter whilst pointing their guns at him.

"KNEEL ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD!"

"That's what I told your mother last night!" Naruto couldn't help but snap back, as he placed his headsets on his ears, a new song already in the middle of playing on his Iphone. This caused his head to bob back and forth once more whistling to the tune of the song, not even caring that it was his music and singing that got him in this mess in the first place.

"That's it. EVERYONE OPEN FIRE." They did just that as bullets shot out of the guns like the droplets of rain. A fierce and pelting metallic rain of gunpowder and death.

"The things I have to deal with to get paid." Naruto couldn't help but to comment offhandedly as he readied himself to deal with the guards and sneak into his waiting plane, and get on with the whole preventing a war from breaking out thing.

The thought of using **Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God)** to get back to Japan didn't even occur to him, after all where was the fun in that?

**Chapter 1: END**

**-Fortis-**

I have met a lot of people in my days serving the church, but in all my life I have never met a person as strange as Naruto Namikaze. He is a walking representation of the word contradiction, he could be happy, goofy, and jovial at one moment, and then be cold, cynical, and calculating the next. He can be kind at times but can also be equally brutal when he wants to, at times I even thought that he suffers from some sort of personality disorder but it seems that that is not case. Though I have to admit that it isn't such a bad thing when it comes to a person like him, it's just one of his charms, a trait that makes him stand out among the rest. I guess his attitude was one of the main reasons that I found myself drawn to him, much like many others. He truly is such a strange man.

-Xenovia.

**-Fortis-**

**Character Sheet: Team Naruto/ Team Awesome/ Team Maelstrom**

**Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze - **Descendant of the original Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, he dreams to become the strongest in the world. After the tragedy now widely known as the Elemental Massacre, the Shinobi traveled all over the world training himself to the brink of death in order to reach his ambition. Along the way he attracted the attention of several individuals who became his precious people, individuals who eventually accompanied him throughout his travels. They eventually formed an group which kept getting on all sorts of wacky, crazy, and deadly adventures together. He still aims to be the strongest in the world, but he considers this group of people as his family, his Nakama. He currently acts as a mercenary doing all sorts of dangerous jobs in order to earn cash for his group.

**Zel- **A first-rate magus of the highest order afflicted with vampirism and has the unique ability to use one of the True Magics that exists within the vast numbers of worlds within and beyond the Dimensional Gap. He is also a very eccentric man much like many magus but unlike them he has a penchant for mischief and extremely complex and inane research, a person whose moods constantly shift between logical and the completely insane. He is often responsible for setting up and looking for mission requests for the group, and is also sadly the one who manages the groups finances much to the frustration of Naruto. He is also among the most mysterious in Team Naruto as he just randomly appeared one day during the early days of the creation of the group and decided to tag along for reasons unknown, though Naruto still seem to trust him, so the others do so as well. He is this world's version of a certain Wizard Marshall, only younger in appearance.

**-Fortis-**

**EN: **Naruto has two sides to his personality: One is his default personality which is his goofy carefree self that could be best described a similar to his canon counterpart one I dub the standard **Uzumaki Mode**, and another personality as aptly coined by the usernamed **Bored Failure "Battle mode"**or as I like to call it**"Namikaze Mode", **the colder and more calculating part of his personality**. **In which case all of that cannon goofy and clumsy shit gets thrown out of the window and he shows us what he truly is, a shinobi.

**EN2: Reason for Curbstomp battle:** Naruto was already killing devils when he was nine, ten years has passed since then and he has gotten a hell of a lot stronger since. Plus this also vaguely shows where Naruto currently stands i verse, when compared to Irina and Xenovia who at this point could fight toe to toe against None Scale Mail Issei and Kiba, since they didn't stand a chance against Naruto expect no one from Rias' Peerage to come even close to beating him, at least not yet. Currently I'd put Naruto on around Ass Lover's level.

**Please Review ^w^**


	3. The Tiny Ripples Across The World

**Fortis**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto, nor do I own High School D x D. I think it's obvious by now.

**AN: **Third week in a row! Mawhahaha I'm on a roll and no please don't jinx it. I mean it is like I only have an hour or two every day to type a small part of my fic until I spend one of my days offs to strap the snippets together and create a readable fic so yeah don't jinx don't small hours away I need them for m fics! I needed them ;w; Another transition chapter, read note in the end for more details. Yeah definitely important to read that note.

**Tags: Strong Naruto, Smart Naruto, Human Naruto, Hero Descendant Naruto, AU, Violence, Gore, Character Deaths, Ecchi, Minor Xovers, and general OOCness.**

**Pairings: ?**

**Unbeta'd**

**-Fortis-**

"Chaos follows me wherever I go, so in the end I learned to enjoy its company, it's been a close friend ever since."

Naruto Namikaze

**-Fortis-**

**Arc I: The Strongest Self-Proclaiming Human**

**Chapter 2: The Tiny Ripples Across The World**

**Location Unknown**

_Inhale..._

Naruto was standing in a large and wide room with a white marbled floor, there was no ceiling, only darkness that blanketed the heavens. This room was special, a secret place that only he knew of, and it contained but one of many blessings he received that day, a source of power that without a doubt would help him on his path to be the strongest.

It was also the hardest of all his abilities to master.

In the room there were several mirrors, nine of them in fact, all of which depicted the image of mythical beasts with tails going from one to nine. However among all nine beautiful and majestic mirrors only four were colored, a large brown one tailed racoon with bluish markings rampaging in the middle of a dessert, a two tailed cat surrounded by bluish black hellfire, a three tailed turtle surrounded by waves and a mighty carapace, and a large and regal four tailed monkey that breathed of ash and fire. These four represented the peak of his mastery of this ability. These four were the extent of his ultimate power. His current limit, that he which he wishes to surpass.

_Exhale..._

He sat down in a lotus position, his blue eyes were closed, yet he could still see it all. The vivid landscape which was and will forever be located in the inner most part of his mind and soul, this was a world unlike any other, and it was simply his world.

The world shifted, a kaleidoscope of light and colors surrounded his body until he found himself facing a large mirror, still colored gray as it depicted the picture of a large horse, five tails billowing on its back as it galloped across a field while surrounded by steam.

_Inhale…_

The shinobi let his mind drift towards the mural, he allowed his mind to linger in its presence until he felt the smallest signs of what could only be described as a pulse. It was weak at first just a few barely noticeable beats that came from the mirror but that did not last so long. The soft beats turned into a thunderous booms as the presence increased by a thousand fold. There from the mirror came sentience, a life belonging to another creäture that lingered within his very being.

Then it took shape.

_Exhale…_

There was a mass of energies that surged forth the mirror, coming forth like wild waves threatening to drown him in place. It was scalding, the very sensation that blanketed his body made him want to recoil or cry out in pain. Yet he did not move, this was his mind, this was his sanctuary, to concede to another being here would be a sign of weakness and he did not like being weak. It was a mixture of a complex to be the strongest and pure stubbornness, so even when a scorching blanket of steam enveloped his body he dared not move nor show discomfort.

This was his domain, and he would be damned if he showed weakness here.

_Inhale…_

He would not run away, not even when he felt the overwhelming presence that stood before him, he will stare at it in the eyes and face it down like the others before it.

And so stare at it he did.

It was a large figure that appeared in place of the mirror when the steam receded. There stood in front of him a large white horse with it's face shaped much like a dolphin, but unlike both mammals it had with five tails, each one waving about whilst producing an absurdly large amount of steam.

But that was not what caught the teen's attention, far from it in fact, but rather it was the essence of pure power that radiated from the beast. He held no doubt in his mind that despite it's appearance this five tailed creature was a being of power, and it was simple as that.

The two spent a few seconds just looking at the other, their meeting, never wavering nor flinching away. and for but a moment there was clear respect between the two beings. Though that was soon replaced by a somber expression that appeared on the white creature's face.

Its maw didn't move, neither did its body, but its words, so deep and powerful like the others reached the blond's ears.

_"It is not time yet young one. You are still not ready to inherit my powers. Shikaku, Matatabi, Isobu, and Son may have given their powers to you but I feel, no I know that you are not yet ready."_ The large creature paused as it looked Naruto in the eyes._ "…and the rest" _

The other four mirrors appeared from beyond the scalding mist, each one of them glowed with eldritch powers, so much of it in fact that power flooded his mind that it threthened to shatter it into pieces, as the mirrors seemingly hummed, in compliance with the five tailed being's words.

"…_agrees with me."_

"Why is that?" Naruto asked as calmly as he could, betraying not a single emotion to the mighty beast.

"_You do not acknowledge it, that which exists within you. Those thoughts that creep and linger from the side of your eyes. Either acknowledge its existence, let it go, or find the in between. My old friend went with the former, and he projected it unto the world. The cause and effect were the same, it could not be avoided. That which led to his down fall, and the down fall of many. and I wish it doesn't lead to yours."_

A set of confused blue eyes stared at the large white being, his brain already working as hard as it could to decipher the meaning of the behemoth's words. "Is this about…" He blinked in realization as he placed his right hand upon his chest. "…but I already, I already regret it you know? That part of my life, my misspent youth. I've already moved on a never looked back."

The large horse shook his head. _"And that is why you are not ready, you chose to ignore and delay the problem rather than deal with it. If you ignore it, it shall fester and grow, it will erode you very being and turn you into a creäture bereft of humanity." _The beast finally opened its maw and from it a large amount of steam bellowed covering the teen's landscape with ease.

"_You will come back when you are ready, until then young one."_

And with that the beast returned to the mirror, and vanished along with the steam.

Naruto kept himself seated in the lotus position, his clothes were ruffled, his hair and body were matted with sweat yet he did was not shaken to sit in the presence of a being of power. He was aware that something like this could have happened upon making contact with one of the nine. The same happened when he first met Matatabi and Son. To gain their powers he needed to gain the answer to their questions or in the cases of Shikaku and Isobu beat the crap out of them. Truth be told the former was more difficult as their tasks often required him to look deep within himself and acknowledge his own short comings for the sake of getting stronger.

It was a rather taxing experience.

Matatabi wanted him to look at his grief, she wanted him to acknowledge that it existed and that it was a part of his very being. Just one of the many forces that fueled his dream of being the strongest. It was not that difficult but it was a frustrating event as he was forced to cry out his frustrations at the unfairness of what the world had done to him.

However Matatabi's task was nothing compared to his interactions with Son Goku, damned prideful ape had to make him acknowledge the changes that were happening with his body a few years back. Yes, the blasted four tail bijuu of all things made him acknowledge and accept his perverted side.

That was probably the fourth most traumatizing event he faced in his life, only being surpassed by the **[Elemental Massacre],** that time Zel showed him an alternate universe inhabited by kids who solved all of their world's problems by playing card games on motorcycles, and that one time he tried his childhood friend's cooking and ended up in the hospital for two months. On a side note it was his first brush in with death and he still couldn't look at tomatoes to date.

He shook his head, he had already spent too much time in here. It was time to return to reality, to the world that exists beyond his own, and so much like he did before, he opened his mouth and released the breath that he was now holding.

_Exhale…_

Naruto opened his eyes, and darkness immediately greeted his vision. Almost immediately his body complained to him as it was both compressed and sweaty. Why was it so cramped, and dark? Better yet where the hell was he? His mind quickly rebooted itself allowing him to recall the past few hours, and all the events the lead to him being stuck in this place that was devoid of both life and sunlight.

Oh yeah, he snuck on to the plane, got into the cargo hold and decided to hide there for the rest of the flight back to the Japan, but why was is so dark, and why did it suddenly get bumpy?

When he got nothing but a blank sheet of paper in his mind saying 'Fuck if I know', he decided to just shrug and go with his basic impulse of do something now and think about it later. After all, if he forgot about it then it probably wasn't that important.

With another shrug, he placed his feet against once of the surfaces of the cramped enclosure, and then he kicked up.

Light immediately greeted his eyes, soon followed by panicked shouts and hurried screams.

Why did he have a feeling that it was Tuesday again?

**-Fortis-**

**Narita International Airport- Japan- Terminal 1 Baggage Claim**

Xenovia and Irina were standing among a sea of civilians, their eyes were moving around flickering from face to face as they searched for the now missing in action, shinobi. Now that two had an ample amount of time to go over their actions the two thought that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the best of ideas to leave him all alone in the midst of an airport crawling with police officers that were after his hide. After all they didn't even catch a glimpse of him during the flight, so there was a chance just a bit of a chance that they might have screwed up and left their ally in Italy.

"Where is that blondie?" Irina growled under her breath as she kept on her search to find the familiar mop of spiky blond hair. "He couldn't have missed the flight or got caught by the police, but if he did then that would mean he missed the flight!" She quickly made the sign of the cross and looked up to the sky. "God please have mercy on his soul, and if he is sent to jail please guide that unruly soul towards redemption! And have mercy on mine for the impure thoughts that seeks vengeance with that guy." Nope she was totally not bitter that the guy kicked beat the crap out of her without hesitation. Definitely not. She was just being a good catholic by praying for the blond meanie. It's not like she wanted him to get caught and jailed, nope, definitely not.

Xenovia chose to ignore Irina but the thought of Naruto missing the flight did not bode well for her. Not when the greatest key to their success and survival –as she knew he was stronger than the two of them- was stuck half way around the world, and most likely detained by the police, or the military, or whoever the hell the blond teen managed to piss off by just opening his mouth.

"Xenovia-chan, do you think he missed the flight?"

"That… would be problematic." She thought about how their chances plummeted without the abnormally strong human. "Really problematic. I pray to the almighty father that such is not the case."

"But why? I mean yes this mission is super dangerous but this isn't the first dangerous mission we've been to, and we've managed to pull through all of those other ones unharmed. Well mostly unharmed." Her gaze lingered at Xenovia's short blue hair. "I'm sorry about your hair again, if it wasn't for me then you'd still have your pretty long hair."

"It was inconsequential. My hair got in the way of a mission, I simply cut it off to remedy that. It was barely your fault. As to why I am concerned about are companion it is simply because he is strong, and is a definite asset to this mission. Nothing more, nothing less." She replied bluntly answering the question while simultaneously waving off Irina's concerns as her brown eyes were still searching for the blond, and after a few minutes of search without getting any results, she let out a sigh. "I guess we have to go through this mission on our ow-"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

The swordswoman's words were cut off when loud panicked noise came from nearby. Both Xenovia and Irina's head instantly snapped towards the noise's direction just in time for them to witness what the commotion was all about.

Their jaws dropped almost just as fast as their heads snapped. For there on top a conveyor belt, a large suit case lay, and from it a pair of legs struck out, the top part or rather the cover of the suitcase was detached from its main body and was already firmly embedded into a newly made indent on the ceiling.

There was a body lay inside a now broken suit case, a body that suddenly rose like a vampire. That is if vampires did a Chinese get up –or the less racist term for it kip-up- to stand up and get out of their coffins in an overtly dramatic fashion. "Damn that place was cramped." Naruto complained before he started dusting and stretching his body not even giving the slightest hint of a damn for all the people that were gawking at his presence, or the officers that were screaming at a walkie talkie and was rapidly converging towards his location.

"Damn that was really uncomfortable. It's like I spent an entire flight inside a suit case. Oh wait that's exactly what happened." Naruto looked over his phone and upon seeing that it still had juice in it decided to put on his headsets and play a song from his phone. "How the hell did I even get in there? I'm sure I would remember if I climbed inside and decided to meditate in a fucking suit case of all things." Naruto grumbled as he looked around the conveyor belt. "Hmm I wonder where those girls are."

Naruto easily found the two girls. I mean how couldn't he? They were standing in the middle of an airport wearing white cloaks with their hoods up. Talk about being subtle or stealthy. On a side note Naruto wondered why the police or security hadn't taken in either of them for questioning since he knew for a fact that there would definitely be places in the world that would detain them for going in an airport dressed like that standing around there looking all suspicious and shit. Like those air ports in the U.S. but that was a different story all together.

"You there! The guy on top of the conveyor belt! Get down from there and put your hands behind your head!" A disgruntled officer shouted, a he pointed a gun at Naruto.

Naruto blinked as he spotted the guard along with the others that were slowly running towards him as well. "I'm getting intense Déjà vu vibes over here. Honestly what's up with airport security these days and why does it seem that they always target innocent civilians like me? I mean what did I do to deserve this?"

It was at that exact moment that the nearby tv's and monitors of the airport flashed and showed a new headline that featured a in Naruto's opinion the picture of a dashingly handsome blond teen with blue eyes. The head line was simple and concise as it marked the handsome tean as some sort wanted criminal in Italy or some sort of international terrorist.

Naruto and the two exorcists two were standing on the side gawked at the news report. With the former's expression a bit paler than the later. "...Oh shit is this for real? Oh my god, everyone's going to lose their shit if they see this. Well except Ken cause he's nice and all, but the others wouldn't let me live this down!" His head snapped towards the officer that was pointing a gun at him."Oi I'm not a criminal! Not a terrorist! It's just all a misunderstanding!"

"He's being aggressive!"

"Put him down!"

"Open fire!"

A rain of bullets were the quick response to his denial.

Naruto's counter to that was near instantaneous, he jumped behind the conveyor belt flipping by several suit cases that served as sufficient shields from the first volley of bullets. "Goddamn it? Again what the hell is up with airport security and why are they so trigger happy around me?" He shouted as the sounds of gun fire slowly stopped.

He took a peek from behind the conveyor belt and found that the guards were quickly reloading their bullets. He also spotted Xenovia and Irina who were quickly making themselves scarce as they inches away from the scene.

A mischievous idea popped in Naruto's mind.

Naruto jumped back up in the conveyor belt –which was now letting out sparks and dent with some bullet holes. He then looked at the two exorcists in the eye and grinned as he waved at them. "Yoh Irina, Xenovia, whats up you two? Yeah you two with the white cloaks the ones that are slowly running away. Are you guys ready? Remember we have a mission from the boss that involves a rival faction that hid here in Japan, and we need to deal with that problem soon. Cut it from its roots. You know before a war breaks out and fills the streets with the blood of those from our groups and those caught in the crossfire. Remember all that stuff?" The blond gestured his hands wildly as he said those words in an obviously fake italian accent, but his choice of words made it sound that they were involve with the mob and were currently on their way to assassinate someone and prevent an up and coming turf war. It was so close to the truth, but the police didn't really know that.

The officers were quick to pick up on that as some of them turned towards the cloaked Xenovia and Irina. The girls started sweating bullets and were forced to raise their hands when guns were pointed at their directions.

"Detain them as well! Consider them as accomplices of the blond menace."

Irina gawked at him while Xenovia stared at him with wide eyes, both shocked that he actually dragged the two of them into this mess.

Then they spotted it, several clues really; one was a slow tugging on the side of his smile, the amused shine in his eyes before they curved up, and lastly his appearance was eerily reminiscent to that of a fox, an extremely mischievous one at that.

This was his pay back to them for abandoning him in the airport in Italy.

Xenovia grinned wryly as the police surrounded her and a now sniffling Irina who was whispering something about evils blonds and how god was going to punish him one day. "Well played." She said.

Well played indeed.

That was until Naruto got the sudden urge to do several exaggerated gestures to get the officer's attentions once more, which again led to another round of bullets getting thrown at Naruto like dollar bills to a really good hooker, before the blond finally decided to end it all as he threw several smoke bombs to the ground. After that all hell broke loose as civilians ducked for cover, shots were fired, shouts were screamed, and stuff were stuffed. Lucky for the three of them, it was just that thing they needed to get out of the airport and make their super awesome escape.

Chaos really had its uses at times.

**-Fortis-**

**City of Kuoh -Japan- Outskirts of the City**

**Several Hours Later**

Kuoh looked like a normal city.

Emphasis on the world look, as the city sat in not one but two extremely large and wide intersecting lay lines that bathed the entirety of the city, with a high density of spiritual, natural, and magical, energies making Kuoh a perfectly hospitable place for super natural beings of all kind. In this specific reality Kuoh was inhabited mostly by Devils, marking it as a very dangerous place to be in if one was working with or for the church. Though it was sometimes a mystery how a church or two even popped up in this city with all the devils within it. Then again it might have been a failed attempt to set up an outpost in the enemy's territory but again that is another story all together, one that Michael himself had to answer for.

It was still in the middle of the afternoon when the trio finally arrived in the outskirts of Kuoh, and much to the exorcists' relief they managed to get here without incurring the wrath of the police force or the military; having avoided the former and lost the latter before they were deployed thanks to the untimely intervention of a certain giant lizard kaiju called Godzilla attacking another city or at least that was Naruto's explanation about why the military were not after them.

Xenovia actually agreed with the blond much to Irina's ire. The bluenette's explanation was short but also made a lot of sense. "Japan is a really weird place, weird but also extremely dangerous, so it's best to expect the unexpected."

"That was not funny!" Irina shouted, the normally kind and cheerful girl was nearly in tears as she tried to slug Naruto who easily swatted the blow away and blew the girl a raspberry. "I haven't been back to Japan in years! I was even planning to meet an old friend of mine – a childhood friend and potential love interest at that, but how could I have done that if was suspected of being an accomplice or being an real terrorist! I'll get arrested and turned over to the police by Issei's parents!"

"Mah mah, calm down, it wasn't as if anyone spotted your faces and you weren't an accomplice to a terrorist just to a guy that's extremely misunderstood by the police, the media, and as of right now most of Italy and Europe who looked at the media."

"That's not the point! What you were doing! All the chaos and terror you were causing!? Would you really blame people for calling you a terrorist?" Irina cried out as she grabbed Naruto by the lapels of his jacket. "Would you?"

Naruto looked at the half angry, half crying, exorcist with a blank look on his face. "You're not a terrorist if you didn't blow shit up or better yet you're not a terrorist if you don't get caught." He scratched the back of his head as Irina kept shaking him up. "On aside note I really need to run interference with my picture circulating the world now. Might have Ika-chan hack into several agencies to clear that shit up, and if that's the case what are you even worrying about? None of us are terrorist, and even if we are after this mission we'd be all declared innocent."

"That's not the point!"

"It's a good point though." Xenovia nodded in agreement to the blond's words. It wasn't ethically right but it was pretty good in a pragmatic sense. Why stress about it if they weren't caught or there was a chance to clear their names even if they were.

Irina turned around and pointed an accusing finger at her fellow exorcist. "Don't agree with him! Why did you even agree with him? Did he give you thirty silver coins!? You traitor! Heathen!"

Xenovia merely shrugged in response to Irina before she turned her attention to a slightly amused Naruto. "We're about to enter enemy territory. Do you have a specific plan in mind or would you prefer we follow the usual protocol of the church?" That meant going to the owner of the lands -in this case the Devils- and declaring to them their intentions in this land. In which case there was a fifty-fifty chance of coming into blows with the devils and making this mission all the more difficult and complicated but in the end if the devils were sensible enough then a non-interference or a non-aggression pact can be set up so that the two groups would have a minimal interaction during the length of the mission.

"Don't just change the conversation!" Irina cried from the side as she glared at Xenovia.

Naruto shrugged. "Truth be told I was just planning on winging it, but then I learned I needed to work with you two." He scratched the back of his head as his eyes peered up towards the late afternoon sky while he spent a few seconds in silent contemplation. "You two can go head to the owners of the land, I'm going to go around the city to get a lay out of it, maybe even visit a contact or two who might have clues about where the heck those swords, and that Kokabiel prick, are."

"Hey! Don't pretend that I don't exist!"

Naruto sent Irina a pitying look. "There, there, Irina-chan, just stay silent for a bit longer okay? Can't you see the adults are talking?"

"I'm so close to stabbing you." She growled out as her armband glowed and changed into a full-fledged Japanese katana, which she waved threateningly at the infuriating blond.

He waved her off. "Yeah, yeah, mummy and daddy are talking. So you good with that planned." This time Naruto did duck to avoid a slash from **[Excalibur Mimic]**.

It was either that Xenovia was too serious about this impromptu planning session or she purposely ignored the murder attempt on the part of her partner. "That sounds reasonable."

Naruto nodded as he danced around Irina's attacks none of which came close to actually hitting him but he was playing it off by dodging in an exaggerated way. "Okay so you guys go do your thing, talk with the devils in this land and what not. While you two are doing that I'll be going to meet an acquaintance of mine who lives in this city. I know for a fact that that guy knows whats going on, just need to talk to him to confirm some of my suspicions." He clarified his plans which was met with a nod from the blue haired swordswoman and a roar of frustration from the attacking brownette.

Xenovia arched one of her eyebrows as she went over the plans. "Are you sure that you don't want to come with us? Wouldn't it be better for all of us to introduce ourselves, so there wouldn't be any confusion with your presence? And if I do say so myself it's quite a chaotic presence that you bring with you." She stated her honest opinion about the blond, ever since she's met him her life suddenly had an increase with absurdly chaotic events much like the ones that happened on the airports.

"Hmm... no. It wouldn't be a big deal because I'm not really aligned with any of the factions so as far as they care they'd just treat me as a normal human being. Actually it's probably better if it's only the two of you who goes there and don't tell them anything about me. Keep me a secret, I'm your ace in the hole and you wouldn't want potential enemies knowing about your secret weapon, right?"

"That…" Xenovia bit the bottom of her lips as she went over his reasoning while he kept playing avoid getting stabbed and disemboweled with Irina. "Sounds like a good plan." She said hesitantly before her brown eyes bored into the blond. "But is there a reason for that? It sounds as if you want nothing to do with meeting the Devils."

He chuckled sheepishly, it seems that the blue haired swordswoman was sharper than he gave her credit for. "I really do try my best to keep my interactions with devils to a minimum and if possible no interaction at all."

"And why is that? And Irina stop playing around. It's unbecoming for an exorcist to attack a human." Xenovia chided her fellow Exorcist, who upon hearing her words stopped her attacks.

"…But." Irina stared at Xenovia with puppy dog eyes as she looked at her blond target, the urge to stab him still lingered in her mind.

Her voice was cold with authority as she leveled Irina with a neutral gaze. "Stop, and if you do I'll allow you to meet with your childhood friend before we go meet the Devils."

"Hai…" She deflated as **[Excalibur Mimic]** shifted back into an armband and promptly got attached to her shoulder. On a brighter note at least she'd get to see her old friend Issei.

"Heh whipped." Naruto couldn't help but snicker as Irina growled at the blond. "Let's say it's a mix between a legacy of misspent youth and the fact that I don't want anyone to get mixed up with my mess, cause knowing myself I'd probably do something stupid and next thing we know there would be two very pissed off Satans after my hide, and we wouldn't want that happening now would we?"

"Very well, then we shall meet later? Do you know a good place to meet up?"

"Hmm how about the square near all the restaurants in the shopping district, we can probably grab something to eat as well before we could start with our mission by tonight."

"That is acceptable."

"Yup, then see you two later." Naruto waved at them as Irina kept her glare pointed at him while Xenovia gave a curt nod back as the two groups went their separate ways.

Naruto walked for a few minutes before he stopped and looked up to the sky, it was a cloudy night, with the first hints of orange spreading around the horizon. He extended his right hand towards the sky, briefly glancing upon the circle in his palm as he used it to block out the sun. "Devils huh?"

It wasn't that he had anything against them, it was just that he didn't have the best track record when it came to interacting with devils.

And like he said that last thing he wanted was to have two Satans after his ass, perhaps one day when he was strong enough, and decided it was time to go toe to toe with the strongest of the devils but until then he'll play it safe.

He didn't really want to be the one to start the war he was trying to prevent in the first place.

**-Fortis-**

**City of Kuoh -Japan- In Front Of A Wealthy Mansion**

In Naruto's honestly brutal opinion to call this mansion - the one which he stood in front of and traversed -wealthy was a gross understatement. After all it was incredibly posh and classy, the gates to the mansion was made of honest to god gold of all things and there were even some beautiful statues and busts of women around the garden as he walked through it. Hell the plants in the garden itself were filled with all kinds of rare fauna from the corners of the world along with the ones above and below it.

Yep to those with keen eyes the plants were definitely the first sign that this house was inhabited by a person who dwelled and interacted constantly with the other world, **[The World of the Night]** as Naruto liked to call it.

The shinobi's strides brought him in front of a door, one which was just as lavish as any other thing he found on his short walk inside this residence. Though he found his eye twitching rather violently when he stared at the doorbell, one which was suspiciously shaped as a certain part of the women's anatomy, with the button being, you guessed it…

"…Is that a nipple?" Naruto's brow twitched once more as he spent a few seconds just staring at the damned thing. "Why is it that most of the older people I know are a little on the strange and the unstably insane side?"

Talk about the pot calling the fucking kettle black.

With a heavy sigh he pressed the doorbell.

Being the patient man that he was Naruto waited for one minute.

No response.

Naruto pushed the doorbell again, and this time waited for thirty seconds.

Still no response.

Naruto pushed the doorbell a third time, and waited for fifteen seconds.

When he still got nothing in response the blond decided to take a couple of steps back, before he broke off into a running start.

The door was still closed.

His run turned into a leap, his right leg extended into a kick, and aimed towards the door.

The door opened revealing a roguishly handsome man with black hair and golden bangs. The man was wearing a rather loose-fitting yukata, the type usually worn in the bed room just before or after having hot steamy sex, which showed off a bit of his muscular build that was hidden underneath his clothes.

"Yes, yes, I'm comi-"

The man was cut off when a boot landed at his face and sent him crashing back into the house, but through some kind of miracle the man was able to close the door as he flew back and unintentionally slammed it in front of the Naruto's body, not only denying the blond entrance to his domain but also sent him crashing towards the garden.

As a result, the two of them were hit and momentarily knocked out.

Yet again the door was closed, with the people on either side of it sprawled on the ground, having been felled by the door's might.

Just as planned.

On a side note there is no chance that the door, or doors of any other kinds will be a recurring villain in this story.

After a few seconds Naruto rose from the ground and with an irritated grunt, stalked towards the door, before pressing the damned nipple shaped buzzer with such force and intensity that he actually inverted it.

This time the door opened, revealing the same man Naruto kicked just a handful of seconds ago. "Yoh Azazel."

To Azazel's perspective it simply looked as if Naruto Namikaze stood there, his hands in his pockets, his head bobbing back and forth due to the music booming from his head sets. The very troublesome and chaotic Naruto Namikaze. Truth be told he'd rather not deal with the boy now, especially since he was in the middle of a rather delicate experiment

"Yoh Azazel." When those word's reached the governor of the **[Fallen Angel]**'s ears he simply smiled at the blond.

...and without any inkling of hesitation Azazel slammed and reinforced the door with dozens of spells at the familiar and extremely troublesome blond's face.

"I'm busy and it's too early to deal with your shit!" Azazel roared from behind the door. "Come back in a few hours and then we can talk! Actually scratch that come back tomorrow or better yet next week!" He shouted as he turned around and started making his way back to his room not really caring whether or not his visitor hear him.

"It's too early for this shit." The fallen angel grumbled as he jumped back on his bed, right next to a hot brunette model covered with a satin sheet that he was oh so busy working and experimenting with. "Now where were we?"

The hot model giggled. "I believe you said something about your tongue?"

"Oh I do believe I know what you're talking about." Azazel grinned perversely as he slowly slithered and snuck his way beneath the expensive sheets.

His passions may lay with Sacred Gears but that didn't mean he'd say no to the prospect of a romp or two.

The model having a sacred gear was just a bonus really, especially when she had huge oppai.

Meanwhile Naruto blinked several times as he started at the door that was slammed right at his face. "D-did that just happen?" He blinked another few times before he scratched the back of his head. "Huh? I guess it did." He took a deep breath, even going as far as lacing his voice with chakra just to make sure he was heard. "Oi Asshole open up it's like three in the afternoon, I need to talk to you about something! This shit's important so you better wake up!"

Naruto tried to kick the door but found his attack repelled by the damned door. He knew he could have brought it down but using a **Rasengan (Spiralilng Sphere)** or a **Rasenshuriken (Spiralling Shuriken)** to bust down a door would definitely look extremely petty, and a bit of an over kill.

"I'll even say the P-word if you let me in right now!" He shouted at one of the windows. "Come on! You Super Pervert open up! You owe me remember!"

"Aho." The chirping of a nearby bird was the closest to a response that Naruto got from the mansion.

"Tch." Naruto kicked the ground while he clicked his tongue acting much like a child as he turned away from the house. "I guess I'll come back later." He said as he slowly walked away but not before picking up a rock that he found nearby, and with the subtle application of chakra, he threw it straight through one of the mansion's windows, a estimate of where Azazel's room was, smashing the glass to bits. If it wasn't then he'd just hope he was lucky and break something with his throw.

"KYAAAAAAAAAA~!" A rather sensual voice tinged with pleasure and shock shouted out.

Naruto blinked. "I really did hit something."

"ARRGGGHHH I BIT MY TONGUE! WHO THE FUCK THREW THAT- NARUTO!"

Naruto snickered as he broke off on a mad dash away from the house. "Yeah I'll definitely be back later. I won't even bother climbing or sneaking in to a window. Yep definitely going be back later." He uttered not really wanting to deal with a ticked off Azazel.

Not when it was clear that he interrupted the sacred gear fanatic during his happy time with another girl. The guy maybe a bit insane, but no one truly deserved getting disturbed during that time.

Well except maybe that silver-haired okama who attacked Konoha, but in his opinion that guy deserved every levels of hell and suffering.

Like a **Rasenshuriken (Spiralling Shuriken)** to the junk.

That okama definitely deserved it more than that stupid door.

**-Fortis-**

**City of Kuoh-Japan- A Random Park?**

Naruto ended up in a random park, one which was just like many other in this city. It had a playground for the kids, a few benches, and even a small fountain in the middle of it. Though despite being near a highly populated area the park was strangely abandoned for some reason.

"Did someone get killed here or something? Yesuz why is a park like this abandoned? Did a guy like get killed by his psycho girlfriend after a bad date or something?" Naruto couldn't help but ask as he sat in one of the benches, his legs hunched together as he sat in a lotus position.

Over all the park was not only a good place to stay and pass time but also a good spot he could use to get a lay out of the city and detect the strong presences within it without actually spending all day walking around all the streets and alleys. After all why would he do that when he had the next best thing when it came to finding what he wanted to?

It was best to do this now while he had some free time.

Naruto took a deep breath, clasped his hands together, closed his eyes, and then he died.

He did not breath, he did not move, his body's functions were reduced to the bare minimum to a point that he was barely considered a living being. In all essence he was more of stone now than a human being…

_"In essence __**Senjutsu (Sage Arts) **__is the ability to become one with nature, the power to control the flow of life goshujin-sama." The cheery voice of one of his closest friends and confidant passed by the blond's mind as memory flashed before him. "It has been a long time since humanity has lost the ability to tap into the power of nature but you are obviously an exemption Anata uuuuuuu~ I was so right that you were going to be so awesome and special since you're basically overflowing with chakra."_

"_Please go back to your explanation." His own deadpanned voice said._

"_If that is your wish goshujin-sama. You see senjutsu allows its practitioner to be super strong, super sturdy. You would even be able to sense people from very far away! If you even master it you could control time and space, or in your case improve your techniques with the help of __**Shizen Enerugi (Natural Energy)**__"_

"_If it's that useful then why do only a few people know about it? Better yet why do only a handful of people even consider using it?"_

"_Well because only a few people have an affinity for this art, most of them being youkais and at some rare occurrences humans like yourself…"_

"_And…"_

_She gulped. "Well…"_

…And as he sat on that park bench Naruto Namikaze became one with nature, one with the world, one with life, one with death. With that he took into himself the power of nature in all of its amazing and invigorating glory, and along it he took in all the malice and evils offered by this land.

"…_When you perform senjutsu."_ _Her words sounded worried and in his opinion it was so unlike her, so foreign, that he was actually a bit worried._ _"You don't only take in the power of nature."_ _There was a short pause. "You also take in to yourself the malice and all the ill will present in the world… it is a rather unpleasant feeling."_

To say it was extremely sickening would be an even more extreme understatement.

He wanted to kill, to look for the closest living being so that he may rip and tear them to shreds, to bathe in their blood while laughing madly.

He wanted to fuck, his body wanted to seek out the closest female, it demanded him to push them down, to show his dominance towards them as he repeatedly have his way with their helpless body.

He wanted to eat, his stomach craved sustenance and cared not for what it came from, a man could pass by him at that very moment and he wouldn't have even hesitated to sink his teeth on the man's flesh and devour him.

He wanted to find the nearest devil, he wanted beat them to the ground, to cause them as much pain as possible before he cut open their bodies and pull out their still beating hearts as he laughs at their weakness.

He wanted to bring about the end of days, he wanted to toss away his ambitions, and in place he wanted to destroy the world and laugh madly while doing so.

He wanted power, he wanted more of it, and he would not stop until he bathed in it.

He would destroy anything that stood in the way of him acquiring power.

"_Anata… that is why I'm reluctant in teaching you this art. I don't want to see you lose yourself to that presence. You may become drunk with power and that will turn you into a monster… and if that happens then fear that I would have no choice but to… "_

It was a surreal experience to have those foreign and malicious primal thoughts to be repeated a thousand times over in your mind. Such was the negative consequence by becoming one with nature, but he knew how to deal with it. He had been ready to deal with it the moment he sat on this bench and decided this was his next course of action.

"_You don't need to kill me. I will deal with it the same way I've dealt with most of adversities life had thrown at me."_

With an iron clad will one forged through the insane hardships that life had thrown on him, he took all of those feelings head on, before beating them repeatedly, pummeling them into submission, and reducing them to dust within his mind until not a thought of any depraved act lingered in his mind.

"…_So don't worry." He told to his pink haired companion despite her demeanour she really was the most worry wart in the bunch. "Even if I bathe in all the evils of the world I will not succumb to it. The world shall need ten times more before they taint me, for I have a dream and I will not fall until I achieve it. You can call it foolish, you can call it stupid, but I just call it…"_

"_Being stubborn... or just being yourself." She smiled at him but her words sounded solemn, as he felt her hand rest upon his cheek._

"_Heh, you do know me the best out of all the members of our group."_

"_I know after all I'm your second friend, anata." _

With the last of the memories playing in his mind, Naruto Namikaze completely suppressed and sealed off all of the evils and malice that the world had thrown at him.

Naruto grinned. "As I said you bastards would need ten times more to screw me over."

Then he opened his eyes, they were no longer blue, and they took the color of dazzling gold, strange red tribal like markings appeared all over his face, primary surrounding his eyes which had two indents that fell down to his cheeks looking eerily similar to the sight of a person crying blood.

He felt powerful, he felt strong, and he felt complete.

"Senjutsu Success."

And with that he became one with Nature.

Naruto stood up from the bench as he separated his hands from one another. He then bent down to a knee as he gingerly tapped two fingers to the ground while he closed his eyes as he released two separate and subtle pulses of his chakra.

He felt almost all of it, the outline, shape, and lay out every being provided by his initial scan, then after that he could feel every single life present in this city, every plant and animal, then every single human being, they were small specks of light in his mind, just small beings in the greater span of things.

There after humans came the exorcists they were much like humans only bathed with the presence of light, he could spot a few of them, two belonging to Xenovia and Irina but the others were definitely not blessed by the same light, their light must have been tainted, most likely blessed by the fallen. That would make them exiled exorcists, and a lot of them were stationed among several hotels across the city.

What came next was the third most numerous aside from humans, a familiar dark and tainted feeling passed by his system, devils, and a whole lot of the, all varying in amounts of power, all residing in this city. Though among the devils there were a few that caught his attention, two- no three of them had the lingering presence of dragons around them, powerful dragons, two of them far away, but one that was familiar was close by but he chose to ignore it for now.

Naruto could spot Azazel's presence, he was like a small sun compared to other presences, so he expected that Kokabiel was just smaller than the governor, yet he did not feel the fallen's presence, perhaps he was not yet here? By chance did they arrive early?

Wait no- he could feel the holy presence of the excaliburs in this city, all of them radiating a holy power similar to that of the destruction that Xenovia wielded and thy came from one of the exorcists that was blessed by the fallen.

He noted that the possessor of the stolen blades was moving around the city, barely staying still as he extinguished one life after another. That settled it, he was going to take this guy down as soon as he tracked him down.

But aside from that, if the swords were here and at the hands of the guy who was currently on a killing spree, then where the hell was Kokabiel?

Where was the Fallen Angel of the Stars?

"How long are you going to ignore me?" A familiar voice reached his ears, this was the person he decided to ignore for the moment. The one with the presence of both a devil, and a dragon. A strong presence, the second most powerful in this city in fact, one which had powers that rivaled his own.

"I was hoping that you'd go away if I ignore you but apparently that didn't work out as I planned." Naruto opened his eyes, strong golden colored eyes landed on the familiar figure flying in the air, he spotted the ever present head of silver hair and two mechanical white wings that belonged only to one person as far as he knew, the **[White Dragon Emperor]**.

This person was perhaps one of the few devils that he had the pleasure of interacting with in the past, and that was mainly because they had the same dream and that unintentionally created a sort of rivalry between the two of them. That shit sort of happens when two people tried to kill each other over and over again.

Naruto stood up as he shot the newcomer a glare with his golden colored eyes. "What do you want Vali?"

The silver-haired haired devil smirked at Naruto as he crossed his arms atop his chest. "And what makes you think I want something from you? That I didn't just come here to see if my enemy was still in god fighting condition?"

"Because every time we meet you ask for something stupid, or I say something stupid, then the two of us offend each other. We say a lot of hurtful things then we end up fighting, and you know how that goes."

The smirk never left Vali's face as he mockingly tilted his head to the side."You beaten black and blue while I stand above your crumpled form?"

"Maybe in your dreams if I was severely paralyzed an only had one hit point left when we fight you douche." Naruto snapped back as he glared at the devil. "I meant the two of us badly injured, exhausted, and unconscious and being assisted by our friends while everything around us in ruins."

"Hn."

"If you start that Hn-ing shit with me then you better just leave because I have neither time nor patience to deal with that attitude."

"Hmph still as blunt as ever." Vali shook his head as he slowly descended from the sky. "I'm just curious about what a person like you is doing in this city."

"I could ask you the very same thing."

"Azazel called me here for something, what it is I don't really know but he did promise that I'd get to fight someone strong." The silver-haired devil grinned at the blond who looked non perturbed by such a predatory smile. "Perhaps he finally got tired of your insolence and decided to call me in to get rid of you."

"That's highly unlikely me and Azazel go way back..." Naruto defended himself only for his mind to remind him that he interrupted the governor mid-coitus. "Okay you know what? I can actually see it happening, him asking you to off me but meh, if it happens it happens but if it does he better make sure that he personally tries to take my head. Other riff raff crows just wouldn't cut it. Now if you really want to know I'm here for a job so buzz off."

"A job huh? If I know you, you don't take jobs that don't lead to big fights, or massacres and definitely massive property damage." Vali grinned when he saw Naruto flinch. "So what is so important that the** [Golden Chaos Maelstrom]** is here in Kuoh of all places?"

"Kokabiel acting up, stolen excaliburs, you know same old same old, just another Tuesday in our lives."

"Kokabiel huh? So I guess you're going to end up fighting that guy, not really that much of a challenge with **[Divine Dividing] **but... if it means stealing a prey from you then I guess I'll take some time off my normal schedule to take care of this guy."

"Oh?" A golden brow slowly rose, as a set of golden coloured eyes stared blankly at the flying devil. "Do you want to get in my way again? Are you going to be a kill stealing Ass Loving Prick Again?"

"And if I am? What are you going to do about it you Ramen Guzzling Self-Proclaiming Human?" Vali looked rather smug as he said that last insult.

"Oi I'm one hundred percent human! A hundred and fifty bad ass! And two hundred percent awesome!" Naruto tapped his chest with each exclamation.

"Keep telling yourself that you're human, and maybe others will start believing you."

There were many in the world of the night that did not believe Naruto's claims of being a hundred percent human. Heck even some of the heroes of the **[Hero Faction]** of the brigade doubted his claims, stating that a guy that powerful without a sacred gear or a holy sword could not possibly be human. At least that's what the group's representative said; oddly enough Cao Cao leader of said faction did not give any comments with that regard.

"Grr... then I guess we have to deal with this the old-fashioned way. I know you wont back out, I know as hell that I wont either so whoever wins gets to fight Kokabiel! Don't even try to say no! I know if we don't settle this now then you'd try to kill steal me again like you did last time when I was fighting those monsters!"

"You were just too slow and I got tired of waiting for you to beat them before we could fight. As for your proposal Mhmm…" Vali looked intrigued before a shit eating, blood thirsty grin appeared on his face as he landed on the ground, his white wings still extended from his back. "Sure why not, if it means beating you and showing you your place then I accept."

As those words left Vali's mouth, the battle auras of the two suddenly flared.

The park shook, the air got heavier, as dust and rubble billowed upwards along with the rising of their respective power. High above them the clouds cracked and parted, quickly moving away as if to give the two titans the leeway they needed for their showdown. The wind then stilled, anyone who had an inkling of potential or the ability to sense power with the exception of a few felt a chill of fear run through their bodies as the foreboding thought to flee and get away from this city as far as possible popped within their minds. Animals showed less restraint as they distanced themselves from the area as soon as possible.

But it did not stop there, their powers soared to higher levels, a shroud of gold power surrounded Naruto's body, as the natural chakra coursing through his body synchronized itself with the power of the four beasts that allowed him to use their powers and were currenlty giving him a bit of the rent they owed him. All the while a suit of white armor slowly surrounded Vali until he appeared as nothing more than a fearsome white juggernaut surrounded from head to toe by pure white armor that radiated an intense amount of power.

"…Vali."

"…Naruto."

The combatants growled out as they made their respective moves.

Naruto cocked his right arm back, his hand balled tightly into a fist as a maddened grin appeared on his face as a flood of power exploded off his body like the winds of a fierce and utterly destructive hurricane.

Vali pulled his left arm back, his armored arm also in a fist like Naruto's own, it was only because he wore a helmet over his face that the same grin Naruto wore did not appear to the world.

Their fists flew, flying towards the other at unbelievable speeds, creating a billow of wind and dust that tore through the park.

The earth shook, the sky cried, and city of Kuoh was eerily silent.

And all of a sudden it stopped.

Their fists were still as it stopped mere inches from one another.

Naruto's fist was opened, his palm facing Vali, all the while the White Dragon Emperor's hand was still closed into a fist. Their auras receded as they resealed and stored the depths of their powers back into themselves.

Vali scowled as a smug smile appeared on Naruto's face.

And with that the epic battle between two juggernauts did not happen but rather a simple game of rock, paper, and scissors was concluded...

"Oh yeah! I win! I get to kick Fallen Angel ass! Hahahahaha! Take that Vail! In your face!" Do note that each exclamation point was accompanied by a pelvic thrust.

...with Naruto as the victor.

"Tch so I guess I'll let you deal with him, it's not like I wanted to fight against such a weak opponent." Vali grumbled as he looked away from his rival, the sting of his defeat still fresh and sore.

Naruto blinked several times as he processed Vali's words many times before he pointed a finger at Vali. "Holy shit man are you being tsundere right now?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Vali grunted and then shook his head. "Yeah I've wasted enough time here. I need to go back to Azazel before the man starts complaining about some random thing again. He actually called me a few minutes ago telling me to kill some blond menace for interrupting his experiments but now that I think about it I'm not really in the mood for that so I'm just going to leave."

Naruto nodded his head several times towards the devil. "You do that and let's just imagine that the earlier part of our conversation never happened."

"What didn't happen?"

"The Tsun-thing."

"What soon Tsun-thing?"

"Exactly."

Vali gave Naruto a shrug. "I guess I'll see you later, try not to get yourself killed because I really do want to be the one to chop your head off your body and put it a top a bloody pike. I even promise to put your head on my future trophy room, right next to the red ones, it'll definitely be one of my most favorites."

"Oh fuck you." Naruto snapped back while Vali chose not to deign him with a response but opted to use **[Divine Dividing]** to lift him from the ground and slowly ascend himself towards the sky, in flight.

"Oh and Vali."

"Hm?" The silver-haired battle maniac turned towards the blond human, a single brow raised in curiosity. "What is it?"

"My group has a cool ancient robot war machine and your group still don't!" Naruto gave his rival a cheeky smile accompanied by the ever famous two finger salute, leave it to him to rub a sore spot on his rival's competitive nature. "Suck on that! Ass muncher!"

Naruto was gone in a yellow flash before Vali's could even react, and it was a rather violent reaction as reports from the police that came the next day said that there was a small crater on the spot Naruto was on but that was nothing compared to the reaction of the Devils towards the two sources of power...

Naruto reappeared in the middle of the main shopping district of Kuoh with a small smile of his face. He tucked his hands firmly on his pockets as he started walking about looking nothing more than another face in a sea of the many residents in the city. Not a single person was aware of the fact that he was planning on storming a nearby hotel and ridding it of it's exorcist inhabitants. "Yare yare I do hope that this mission wouldn't too troublesome." He uttered as he passed by a group of three people, -two girls and a guy, and all devils in fact- as they ran by him and headed straight towards the location of the park he was in mere moments ago. "Heh, guess that'll distract them while I wait for Xenovia-chan and Irina-chan to finish their little meet and greet. Til then I guess I have to wait..." The blond started tapping his foot to the beat of the new song that played on his head as he stretched his body.

...who investigated the spot not soon after Naruto and Vali left, and it was because of the simple game of rock, paper, and scissors between Vali and Naruto that Issei Hyoudou, Asia Argento, and Akeno Himejima were sent to investigate the occurrence by their King Rias Gremory before they even stepped into the club. Which in turn caused them to miss the initial meeting between the two exorcists of the church and the Occult Research Club which prevented the three from witnessing the violent confrontation between the group and the demonic sword using knight Yuuto Kiba.

"And hope that nothing bad happens..." Naruto finished as he randomly walked into the shopping district, still appearing as nothing more than another face in the crowd, while the sun was slowly faded away, falling in the horizon that would soon give way to the ever consuming darkness that was the moonlit sky heralding the arrival of the other world along with those that lived in it. He was completely unaware of the fact that he caused a small ripple through the large sea of events that lay ahead...

"...but honestly, where would be the fun in that?"

...Thus changing the fates of several people in this world.

**-Fortis-**

"And so the butterfly's wings flap once more, its actions ripple throughout the Kaleidescope creating and destroying numerous opportunities in a span of one act. I do wonder Mr. Butterfly, what kind of hurricane will you cause?"

The Magus of the Kaleidoscope and Treasurer to Team Naruto, Zel

**-Fortis END-**

**EN:** This chapter ran a bit too long so it was sliced in two parts- it had nothing to do with me running out of time or needing to polish up on the fight scenes nope not at all- this is the more light hearted and comedic portion of it, the latter part well it's not so much. Consider this as a somewhat transitional chapter with slight reveals on Naruto's powers so it wouldn't seem that he's just pulling random power ups off his ass during his future battles.

So to make it clear his current abilities from previous chapters up to this point are: Fuinjutsu, Rasengan, Hiraishin, Kage Bunshin (mentioned by Michael), Taijutsu Skills, Senjutsu, Yang Chakra Usage, Iiryojutsu, Sensing, The Powers of the Bijuu mainly Ichibi, Nibi, Sanbi, and Yonbi, including the respective elements that came with each beast.

This also focused on some of his relationships outside his comfort zone, he has a professional relationship with Xenovia, Irina is bitter and irritated at him, a friendly relationship with Azazel, and has somewhat of a friendemy rivalry with Vali who he had already fought numerous times in the past but the most important part of this chapter was the located at the end. Just how would things have changed if Issei and Asia weren't present during the initial meeting of Xenovia and Irina with the ORC. That is going to be a big whammy, another whammy is also there, and those are about the hints here and there about Naruto knowing about Khaos Brigade, now the million dollar question is why does he know about the group? aside this chapter also gives a slight teaser to a few more members of Naruto's group, Ika, Ken, and another major clue to his teacher in Senjutsu, one that will be familiar to a few people, and to those that aren't well I can say that she is a fox but she is not the Kurama or Yasaka. Take that as you will.

So I leave you guys with that next chapter is the awaited meeting with Issei, Interactions with Irina and Xenovia, a glimpse of Naruto's past, some more interaction with Azazel, Some shit with Freed, Issues with Yuuto, A battle royale, and the appearance of a certain ten winged crow.

**Please Review ^w^**


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